Fast food restaurant Guzman y Gomez has removed its soft serve advertisement for breaching the AANA Food and Beverages Code because it targeted children to an unhealthy food.
The advertisement was displayed across the Guzman y Gomez Facebook, TikTok and Instagram pages, as well as on buses, trains and billboards.
Static creative.
The complaint submitted to Ad Standards said:
"This advertisement is targeting children with unhealthy soft serve ice cream that is packed with sugar and fat.
"The advertisement is bright pink and the image of the three soft serves takes up most of the advertisement and would be very appealing to children.
"The text 'soft serve your mum says yes to' is obviously aimed at children to pester their mums to get this discretionary item.
"Despite trying to say that it's 'real cream, vanilla flavour, no added preservatives' is a sneaky method to convince children and their parents that this product is a healthy option - of which it isn't and shouldn't be promoted as such."
In response, Guzman y Gomez denied that the ad breaches the code.
The company said: "The Advertisement is not principally or significantly appealing to Children and is not targeted at children, is not presented in a way that is principally appealing to Children and is not broadcast in any media in which Children are a significant proportion of the expected average audience.
"The text, 'Soft serve your Mum says yes to' in the Advertisement is a tongue-in-cheek reference to a person’s own memories of their mum’s rules. Having a 'mum' is not attributable exclusively to Children; that is, a person of any age can, and most likely will, have a 'mum'.
"The text was intended to cheekily call to memory a mum saying no to ice cream, regardless of that person’s age."
However, The Ad Standards Panel considered that the words “Soft serve your mum says yes to” would primarily attract the attention of children.
And that children are most likely to have parents not allowing them to buy or consume ice cream, and as such the messaging would appeal most to children and young teenagers who need their parent’s permission to buy the product.
As a result, while Guzman y Gomez did not agree, The Panel concluded the ad campaign targeted children to overconsume ice cream, and the company is taking steps to discontinue the advertisement in its current form.
Watch the video campaign - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxHjP4OJOU4
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