Meat producers have scored an almost total victory over
vegetarians, who have been carpeted for alleged scaremonger tactics in
advertising that links meat eating to cancer.
The Advertising Standards Authority has warned the Vegetarian Society
about the accuracy of its claims after a national press campaign was
condemned for causing needless distress by exaggerating the connection
between red meat and the disease.
The Meat and Livestock Commission, the National Farmers’ Union and the
Danish Bacon and Meat Council were among 64 objectors to the campaign,
through OgilvyOne Worldwide, which features photographs of operation
scars labelled ’colon cancer’, ’stomach cancer’, ’prostate cancer’ and
’breast cancer’ with the headline: ’It’s much easier to cut out
meat.’
The ads cite British Medical Journal estimates that vegetarians had up
to 40 per cent less risk of becoming cancer victims and claim: ’You
might decide that meat, like cancer, is best avoided.’
The ASA was critical of the society for making links that were neither
convincing nor universally accepted, misrepresenting Government
recommendations, and ignoring advice not to run two of the ads without
making changes.
Meanwhile, the ASA has warned Bass to take greater care with future
advertising after the appearance of a poster for the alcopop, Hooper’s
Hooch Hoola, which was criticised for linking drinking with water sports
and pitching its appeal to consumers under the age of 18.
The charity, Hope UK, was among those who objected to the Euro RSCG Wnek
Gosper poster headlined, ’Hooch. Now being surfed’, which features a man
wearing a floral cap and a wig on a beach with a surfer, holding a
bottle of Hoola, superimposed on the quiff in his hair.
But the ASA has cleared Bean Andrews Norways Cramphorn of producing a
pornographic poster for the Body Shop with the words, ’Don’t rage,
relax’, painted on to the side of a naked woman whose breasts are
visible. Twenty-one people complained to the authority about the ad.
