The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a vegan charity’s ‘anti-dairy’ social media ad as it deemed it likely to cause “serious or widespread offence, and unjustified distress”.
The ad, which was paid for by vegan charity Viva!, featured a woman opening a corner-style yoghurt, the label of which read ‘Killer Yoghurt. Flavoured with mother’s grief’.
The voiceover on the ad stated: “New from Killer yoghurts, the umbilical cord flavour. Produced with only the finest ingredients, the stolen milk of grieving mothers. Taste the torment in every mouthful. Blended with brutality. Be complicit, with Killer yoghurts.”
The woman in the ad was also shown smiling and taking a spoonful of the corner part of the yoghurt, which was filled with bloody and raw offal meat. The ad included close up shots of the bloody meat.
The woman was shown with blood on her teeth, dripping down her lips and chin, after which an indoor dairy farming shed filled with cows was shown.
The text above the video, which appeared on Facebook, Instagram, the language app Duolingo and the Poki Games app, stated: “Sponsored. Paid for by Viva! Vegan charity …. KILLER YOGHURTS Excited to tuck in? Intensive dairy farming is on the rise in the UK.”
The ad is part of the vegan charity’s “anti-dairy” ‘Müller Killer’ campaign which it said aims to expose the “barbaric practice of zero grazing — life imprisonment for dairy cows”.
A shocking parody
Viva! said that the ad was “a parody of a Müller TV ad”. According to the ASA is also said that viewers would understand that the blood in the yoghurt pot was not real, and that it was targeted at adults.
The ASA acknowledged that the ad was intended to be a parody of ads for popular food products like fruit yoghurts, which were typically light-hearted and wholesome in tone.
However, it considered the graphic content was likely to shock and cause a sense of disgust.
“We considered that the juxtaposition of the woman’s happy and wholesome demeanour with graphic close-ups of blood and offal was likely to further highlight the graphic and gory imagery,” it said in its ruling.
“We also considered language such as “the umbilical cord flavour”, “…the stolen milk of grieving mothers. Taste the torment in every mouthful. Blended with brutality. Be complicit, with Killer yoghurts”, alongside the graphic and gory imagery, was likely to be seen as frightening and distressing to children in particular,” it added.
“We acknowledged that an ad referencing animal welfare might cause distress to some people and, in light of the language and gory scenes, we considered the distress likely to be caused by this ad, particularly to children, was unjustified.
“We therefore concluded that the ad was likely to cause serious or widespread offence, and unjustified distress.”
The ad has been banned from appearing again in the form complained about and Viva! has been warned that future ads must be prepared responsibly.
Speaking on the decision, Viva!’s founder and director Juliet Gellatley stated: “This ruling by the ASA is unjust and smacks of censorship. The New From Killer Yoghurts advert is an obvious parody, designed to draw attention to the suffering that dairy cows experience every day.
“Over three million people saw Viva!’s advert, but following just seven complaints, the ASA decided to shut it down. This is ludicrous and perhaps has more to do with our ad making people think about the reality of the dairy industry.
“Viva! has provided evidence that shows it was a third party who incorrectly showed our advert to children without our knowledge; however, this was totally disregarded by the ASA. They have banned adults from seeing the ad which makes no sense.
“People see far more shocking images on TV, films and computer games all the time – in today’s world our ad is not deeply distressing,” she added.
