App-etizing

Scandal! ‘Gourmet Live’ Accidentally Endorses Liquor Corporation

If you hoped that the new content promised by Gourmet Live would put an end to the veneer of profit-grabbing surrounding the resurrection and repackaging of the Gourmet archives this summer, think again. The app launched last week with its very first scandal: an autumnal cocktail guide by mixologist Elayne Duke was outed by Diner’s Journal as a hidden advertisement for Diageo, the beverage company who employs Duke as a “spirits ambassador.” All seven of the Gourmet Live cocktail recipes use Diageo brands, which don’t need to be named again after so much (allegedly unintentional) free publicity. Duke claims that her inclusion of those brands had nothing to do with her relationship with Diageo; she just felt that those particular brands worked best in each recipe. Don’t expect this brouhaha to mean the end of corporate interference in the Gourmet brand: executive producer Elizabeth Spiers assures Diner’s Journal that “when we integrate sponsors, which we will be doing very soon, it will be absolutely clear.”

From Gourmet Live, Cocktails with a Corporate Link [Diner’s Journal/NYT]

Scandal! ‘Gourmet Live’ Accidentally Endorses Liquor Corporation