Dairylea ad banned for ‘encouraging’ unsafe practises

A Dairylea advertisement has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) as it upheld complaints saying the ad encouraged unsafe behaviour.

A video on demand ad for Dairylea, seen on ITV Hub, All 4 and My 5 in August 2021, featured two girls hanging upside down from a 5-a-side football goal post and having a conversation about where food went when you hang upside down. One of the girls opened a Dairylea Cheese Triangle and proceeded to eat it, whilst hanging upside down.

The ASA said it received 14 complainants that challenged whether the ad “condoned or encouraged unsafe behaviour that could be dangerous for children to emulate.”

In its response, brand owner Mondelez said the intention of the ad was to show parents allowing their children to have more freedom. While the children in the ad were six and eight years of age, it included two parents in the background who were supervising the children.

The firm added that, although the children were hanging upside down, they were nearly touching the floor and therefore were at a safe distance so as to not fall and hurt themselves.

Mondelez also noted that the VOD ad had been given an ‘ex-kids’ scheduling restriction, which meant that it was scheduled away from programming commissioned for, principally directed at, or likely to appeal to children under 16 years of age. T

However, the ASA considered that the ad features a common and recognisable setting that many viewers, including children, would be familiar with, and accordingly would be easy for them to emulate the specific scene depicted in the ad.

“Because the ad featured two young children in a realistic and familiar environment, who were posing and attempting to answer a question about how their bodies worked, we considered children would identify with them and their curiosity, and be encouraged to emulate the behaviour,” the regulator said.

The Child Accident Prevention Trust, in its submission to the ASA, also noted that the scenario depicted in the ad represented a situation where there was potentially a high risk of choking.

Concluding that a scheduling restriction was not sufficient to reduce the risk of harm, the ASA ruled that the ad must not appear again in the form complained of. The Agency also asked Mondelez UK to ensure their advertising "did not condone or encourage unsafe practises."