A TV advert which asserted that Actimel yoghurt supported children's natural defences against disease has been banned by the advertising watchdog.And they really took the evidence apart, too:
The Advertising Standards Authority ruled that claims that it could help protect school-age youngsters against illness were not supported by evidence.
The company said eight studies were carried out on children up to the age of 16, two of which were carried out on hospitalised children in India who suffered acute diarrhoea or were taking gastritis-related medication.Pretty comprehensive.
The ASA ruled that these two studies could not be applied to healthy youngsters.
Two other trials were dismissed as the mean age in each of the sets of children under examination - six months and 15.5 months - were too young to apply to school-age children.
The watchdog also decided that no health benefits could be established in relation to asthmatic children, and a drop in the number of children with allergic rhinitis and diarrhoea was too small compared to the control group to prove Actimel was the cause.
A spokesman for Danone said its scientific claims were "sound and based on a large body of evidence".So they are understandably miffed at the ASA. Still, they have to keep us safe from misleading adverts, don’t they?
The spokesman added: "These studies are designed and approved by a board of internationally recognised experts with extensive, directly relevant experience in human clinical trials, effects of probiotics in the gut, paediatrics and immunology."
Hmmm, but as Mr Eugenides pointed out, they seem to have missed a rather bigger target:
” The Times has liberally papered London underground carriages with a fascinating new ad campaign. One poster shows a ship navigating some treacherous icy waters, with the accompanying copy reading:Odd that this hasn’t attracted the same attention, isn’t it?
“Climate change has allowed the Northeast Passage to be used as a commercial shipping route for the first time.”
Except, of course, this is horseshit, as twenty seconds with Google would have told them.”
Oddly, the Actimel decision was thought so important that it figured in the BBC Radio 4 News at 8:00 am this morning. Neither is there any mention by the BBC, that I can find, of the Times advert nor of the undermining of the warmists' favourite convenient untruth - the "hockey stick".
ReplyDeleteIf you can get a copy or photo of the ad, please do so, and send it to the ASA.
ReplyDeleteASA baiting is fun and easy, only needs one person to contact them to complain to get an ad pulled.
And you can do it online here
I should think the ad you describe falls foul of CAP Section 7 : Truthfulness
7.1 No marketing communication should mislead, or be likely to mislead, by inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration, omission or otherwise.
I'd love to see such bullshit slapped by the ASA, so if anyone wh has seen or has a copy of the ad reads this, go for it, it only takes a few minutes and the results will be very satisfying indeed.
Blind Steve
Another appalling and misleading ad was the Bedtime Stories ad shown on ITV1 during Coronation Street last week.
ReplyDeleteSome viewers (including myself) have already complained, and there is more information here on the Harmless Sky blog.
It will be interesting to see whether our complaints are upheld. Which would appear more far-fetched, after all - that a yogurt drink has health benefits, or that failing to switch off a light directly causes floods?
"Oddly, the Actimel decision was thought so important that it figured in the BBC Radio 4 News at 8:00 am this morning."
ReplyDelete'Evil company misleading gullible public!'
You see, it's bad when you do it for the purpose of selling something. Controlling people? That's just fine.
"...it only takes a few minutes and the results will be very satisfying indeed."
I'm pretty sure someone's already done that. Might not hurt to double up though.
"Which would appear more far-fetched, after all - that a yogurt drink has health benefits, or that failing to switch off a light directly causes floods?"
Indeed! :)