SodaStream confident banned TV ad will return in 'Coronation Street slot'

By Gemma Charles, marketingmagazine.co.uk, Tuesday, 12 February 2013 08:00AM

SodaStream's UK managing director has expressed her confidence that an ad banned last year will air again in the coming months.

SodaStream: confident banned TV ad will return to screens

Fiona Hope, formerly the brand’s marketing director, said she expected the legal battle between the company and ad watchdog Clearcast to be resolved ‘in the next few weeks’.

Last November, the brand was forced to pull its ‘Soda-Stream effect’ spot, which formed part of an £11m global ad campaign, after Clearcast claimed it ‘denigrated’ the bottled-drinks market.

Hope said she had ‘every intention’ of airing the ad in a ‘Coronation Street slot’ should the ban be lifted. While the ad has racked up 2.5m views on YouTube, SodaStream wants to take its sustainability message to a wider, mainstream TV audience.

Hope admitted that the ban had slowed the progress of SodaStream’s brand repositioning, which will move on to a ‘health and wellness’ focus later in the year.

Reflecting on Clearcast’s reasons for banning the ad, Hope added: ‘No other country has found that [it deni-grated the bottled-drinks industry] and it’s aired in 39 countries. I’m confident that we will win through.’

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk