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Ad watchdog cracks down on big brands

17/01/2007

The director general of Britain's advertising watchdog has urged firms to be "honest and truthful" after clamping down on a number of big brands.

Christopher Graham outlined the work the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) does to ensure that advertising is not misleading after taking action against fast-food chain Burger King, cosmetic firm Avon and toothpaste manufacturers Colgate.

The ASA ruled against a television advertisement for the burger chain, featuring an actor singing a song about the Double Whopper which suggests that eating the burger will make the consumer more of a man.

While the watchdog did not uphold complaints that the advert was irresponsible because it was encouraging youngsters to eat unhealthy food, it did act over the size of the burger used.

"We didn't uphold [the irresponsible complaints] because it's clearly ironic, and we really didn't think a lot of fat, bald men were going to encourage youngsters to eat stupidly," he told BBC Radio Five Live.

"But we latched on to this fact that the burger illustrated looked suspiciously big, and we went out and bought two burgers from two different outlets and sure enough… it was just manifestly a different sort of product that you actually got."

Avon was censured over a claim in a catalogue that a skin cream produced "tighter, firmer, more lifted skin in just three days" while Colgate's poster claim that "more than 80 per cent of dentists recommend Colgate" was also criticised.

"In the case of face creams there is a never-ending battle to distinguish between the cosmetic effect and what people would call the physiological effect. This week Avon is in trouble with us," Mr Graham added.

"And with the toothpaste it was 80 per cent of dentists recommend this, well it turned out that 80 per cent of dentists recommended a number of products, and one of the rival brands was just as recommended.

"So I think we're here to patrol the boundaries, and to make sure that advertising standards are high and we keep advertising legal, decent, honest and truthful."

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