UK: Diageo admits voting for own Scotch brands in Drammies

By just-drinks.com editorial team | 16 January 2008

Diageo has been forced to apologise to the organisers of a Scotch whisky awards, for voting repeatedly for its own brands.

Kevin Erskine, the owner of thescotchblog.com, noticed earlier this week that a raft of votes for the upcoming 'Drammies' had been sent from the same URL, at Diageo. Speaking to The Guardian, Erskine said: "I noticed some of the votes were coming in with the same format, the same two addresses and the same votes. They were clever enough to use different names each time, but the URL was the same."

When contacted by just-drinks today (16 January), a spokesperson for Diageo said: "What we have here is an over-exuberant brand manager in the US who sent an ill-advised round-robin note to a number of his colleagues urging them to vote for our brands in the Drammies.

"We certainly don't condone this behaviour, and have apologised to the organisers of the Drammies."

Diageo's Johnnie Walker Scotch brand has been nominated for a Drammie.

Sectors: Spirits

Companies: Diageo, Johnnie Walker