Soju’s ‘Drink to Link’ slogan falls foul of UK rules

Korean spirit Jinro Soju has found itself in hot water after the alcohol industry’s Independent Complaints Panel (ICP) ruled against its promotional activities at a summer festival in London. The post Soju’s ‘Drink to Link’ slogan falls foul of UK rules appeared first on The Drinks Business.

Feb 9, 2025 - 21:53

Soju’s ‘Drink to Link’ slogan falls foul of UK rules

Korean spirit Jinro Soju has found itself in hot water after the alcohol industry’s Independent Complaints Panel (ICP) ruled against its promotional activities at a summer festival in London.

The issue? A curious phrase: ‘Drink to Link’. To the uninitiated, this might sound like an innocuous invitation to socialise over a tipple. But to an eagle-eyed festivalgoer, this line read more like a siren call to, well, something a little more intimate. A complaint was duly lodged, arguing that in contemporary slang ‘link’ is frequently used as shorthand for casual sexual encounters. The ICP agreed, upholding the complaint under Code rule 3.2(j), which prohibits any suggestion that alcohol consumption is linked to sexual activity. Jinro, meanwhile, attempted to defend its phrasing, explaining that ‘Easy To Drink, Drink To Link’ was intended to reflect the conviviality of soju, a beverage that comfortably accompanies food, family, friends and general merriment. While a laudable sentiment, the ICP wasn’t quite convinced. Given the phrase’s more risqué connotation among the younger festival demographic, the Panel ruled that it could indeed be interpreted as an invitation to ‘drink and link’ — in a manner that has little to do with dinner parties and polite conversation. Thus, another rule, 3.2(d), was deemed breached.

Social success? Not so fast

Not only that, but the Panel also took issue with another potential implication of the phrase — that drinking Jinro might bolster one’s social standing. In the UK, ‘linking up’ can also mean simply meeting friends, and the ICP determined that ‘Drink to Link’ could be read as a promise that consumption would improve one’s popularity. Unfortunately for Jinro, alcohol marketing must steer well clear of such notions, as per Code rule 3.2(e). The phrase fell foul of both counts and so, down it went. The result? Jinro has vowed never to use ‘Drink to Link’ in the UK again. The chair of the ICP, Rachel Childs, delivered a gentle but firm rebuke, affirming that alcohol marketing laws apply equally to all brands in the UK, regardless of their country of origin. A helpful reminder that in the murky world of cross-linguistic marketing, a seemingly innocent tagline in one country might become a cautionary tale in another. Deuk-yeol Yoo, assistant manager of global marketing for HiteJinro, clarified that the phrase was never meant to imply what the ICP concluded. The misunderstanding, he explained, arose from the linguistic differences between Korean and English. As Jinro has now learned, when in doubt, best to avoid the phrase ‘Drink to Link’ altogether — lest your soju end up causing more of a stir than intended.