A non-alcoholic sparkling grape juice adorned with characters from Disney’s Frozen is being discontinued after alcohol awareness groups complained that the beverage’s resemblence to champagne encouraged kids to drink. According to Mashable, the drink had been available at Home Bargains locations in the United Kingdom.
While the idea of sparkling juice being bottled with children’s character might not seem like a huge deal, the description listed for the product on Home Bargains’ website is a little more suspect:
“Little princes and princesses across the land who want to be more sophisticated can now have a grown-up alternative to juice and pop at parties. The Disney Frozen Non-Alcoholic Party Drink is a delicious sparkling white grape fruit drink which would be perfect at birthdays, family events, BBQs or after a long day building snowmen with Olaf. With a champagne style cork pop, your little one is sure to feel part of every celebration.”
Many groups criticized the product saying that it glamorized the consumption of alcohol and could lead young children to want to experiment with drinking. However, Joe Morris of Home Bargains defended stocking the product saying, “We are committed to ensuring that our alcoholic products are not sold to underage drinkers. All staff members are trained to request ID from any customer attempting to buy alcohol that looks under the age of 21.” It should also be noted that the legal drinking age in the U.K. is 18.
A spokesperson for Disney has said the product will be discontinued in April of 2016 and that mesasures were being taken to prevent similar incidents from occuring. A further statement read:
“We have recently been made aware of the Vitpress Disney Frozen Non-Alcoholic Party Drink, a licensed product that originates in Poland. As we set very high standards for the quality of products bearing the Disney name and characters, we have informed the manufacturer that we will no longer license Disney images to a product that is packaged to look like alcohol.”