The Pride of Nova Scotia?

You may have seen them. The commercials for Alexander Keith's Pale Ale where a Scotsman advocates on the behalf of the beer, in different situations. Well, the actor who plays that character has been charged with owning and disseminating child pornography. Yes, child pornography is a heinous crime, but until he gets his day in court, this crime is alleged.

This brings me to my point. Labatt, the owner of the beer brand in question, has dropped the Scotsman character and the campaign altogether, despite it being quite popular. A spokesman for Labatt stated that they did their 'due diligence' and dropped the actor/campaign. Due diligence?!!?!? What due diligence?!?!?! They dropped him the day after he was charged! Sounds to me like the company just wanted to distance themselves from him, probably because of the nature of the charges. What due diligence did they do? Did they speak with the prosecutor? Did they examine all of the evidence? Did they speak with the actor's lawyer? Did they speak with the judge that will hear the case, and if it goes to trial, did they speak with the jurors? Sounds like a railroading to me.

Don't get me wrong, child pornography IS a heinous crime. But I'll go out on a limb and say that our judicial system is based on the idea that someone is innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around...isn't it??? This reminds me of the whole Gretzky betting thing. It seemed as if journalists were wringing their hands with glee, trying to get Gretzky to admit some form of wrongdoing. Heck, he got the better part of the front page of most major newspapers. Nothing bigger happening in the world? No murder? Mayhem maybe? Before going to the Olympics, during the press conference, journalists hounded him with questions for 20 minutes about the illegal betting ring, despite the fact that he said he wouldn't answer any questions regarding it. To Gretzky's credit, he dealt with the whole affair with aplomb. Maybe it was his years of experience with the media, or maybe he truly is the nicest guy you would ever meet. A guy that wouldn't raise his voice at a rock concert. Whichever it is, today, he was vindicated by the police. Maybe now the media will leave him alone on this issue. Just goes to show that people are often judged in the court of public opinion, and Gretzky certainly has his fans to support him. The actor in the beer commercial?

When the actor gets his day in court and if it goes to trial, do you think the jury may be swayed, even if it was just a little, by the fact that Labatt gave him the boot? Doesn't sound like a fair trial to me. Give the guy his day in court. If he's found guilty, punish him accordingly. If he's innocent, Labatt has sullied his reputation and I hope the actor seeks millions in restitution from Labatt. If Labatt wanted to distance themselves from the court case, maybe they could have upheld the actor's right to a fair trial by stating that the company is suspending the campaign, until the trial's outcome. At least this gives some air of 'innocent until proven guilty.' Even doing this, they still could have quietly dropped the campaign sometime down the road. The good news is that the Alexander Keith's Pale Ale drinkers that were interviewed for the news story aren't going to switch brands. Probably more apathy, than support for the actor's right to a fair trial. But hats off to them anyway for not over reacting (just yet, anyway).

Before you judge my posting, consider this. What if YOU were in the actor's shoes? Would you want your day in court? I'm just saying.

Apparently, the pride of Nova Scotia is now the pariah. Well...the Scotsman/actor is.

Shame on you Labbatt. Shame.

(That bottle of Molson Canadian is looking good right now)

By the way, journalists get a tsk, tsk for the whole Gretzky affair.

Wings Over The World