A Youtube ad from grocery delivery start-up Milkrun has been modified due to inappropriate language.
Again the company’s tongue-in-cheek advertising causes backlash, as this determination comes less than one month after an audio ad from Milkrun was removed for offensive language.
The YouTube advertisement starts with a woman appearing to speak at a press conference, before revealing her microphone is a carrot and an avocado. She then speaks about the attributes of the organisation and how the ordering process works.
She is shown to deliver to houses, with one occupant saying "fuck that was fast". She is then shown holding a baby, with the baby having her (adult) face and saying "I've just shat myself". She is shown in other scenarios such as working from home and sitting on the couch.
The complaint Ad Standards received stated: “Aggressive and blatant use of unacceptable language in age-unrestricted setting and time slot. Use of ‘f*ck that was fast!’ and ‘I just sh*t myself’.”
In response, Milkrun defended the ad and stated it did not breach YouTube’s advertising guidelines or section 2.5 of the AANA Advertiser Code of Ethics:
“In accordance with YouTube’s advertising content guidelines, YouTube allows the ‘occasional use of profanity’ in advertisements that are broadcast on YouTube.
“The Milkrun YouTube Advertisement only uses the f-word once in its 1 min 30 second duration. The word ‘shat’ is also only used once in the 1 min 30 second duration of the Milkrun YouTube Advertisement.”
However, the community panel considered that most people would still find the use of f-word in full to be harmful and unacceptable. And that the use of strong language is not appropriate in the context of advertising a grocery delivery service on YouTube.
As a result, the ad breached Section 2.5 of the Code.
The Panel considered that the language could easily have been beeped out or have used the word “effing” without saying the f-word in full.
Therefore, Milkrun modified the advertisement by beeping out the ‘f word’.
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