Boddingtons Bitter has come under TV viewers’ fire with its latest
ad, attracting 76 complaints to the Independent Television Commission
that the commercial is too sexually explicit and promotes bestiality and
homosexuality.
Viewers objected to the sexual innuendo in the ad, which was created by
Bartle Bogle Hegarty and features an animated cow who is blindfolded and
enticed into bed by a scantily clad woman.
Although the cow is supposed to be a bull, the ad shows him with udders
and five viewers felt that this was misleading. There were also
complaints that the ad was shown before 9pm.
Because the ad carried an alcohol restriction, it could not be shown
around children’s programming and the ITC felt that a surreal cartoon
would not be taken seriously by most viewers. The complaints were not
upheld.
Both Comet and Burger King were censured by the ITC for misleading
viewers.
The Saatchi & Saatchi work for Comet in Scotland claimed that ’Comet
guarantee that this is the lowest price in town’ but its rival, Dixons,
proved that it was selling some products more cheaply than Comet.
The ITC decided that Comet could not guarantee that its prices would be
the lowest at all times and demanded that the ads be withdrawn.
Ammirati Puris Lintas’s work for Burger King, promoting free Pink
Panther toys with pounds 1.99 meals ’at participating restaurants’,
attracted complaints when some viewers discovered that the meals
actually cost at least pounds 2.35 because of local pricing strategies.
The ITC ordered the ad to be taken off air.
