Advertisment
Outdoor advertising for the National Dairy Council were styled as movie posters and featured a male character accompanied by various dairy products.
Advertisement 1:
Image of a man hugging a block of cheese with clouds around him as if in the sky. Background imagery was of a rugged landscape and a female wearing a lab coat was superimposed into the foreground. Text accompanying the image stated:
“When Lovers Meet, Heart’s Melt.
Love Irish Dairy and it loves you back. With essential vitamins and minerals.”
Advertisement 2:
Image of a man with his forehead resting against a large carton of milk with clouds around him as if in the sky. In the foreground was the image of a female in a lab coat standing in a boat on a lake. Text accompanying the image stated:
“You Never Forget Your First Love
Love Irish Dairy and it loves you back
….with essential vitamins and minerals.”
Advertisement 3:
Image of a man hugging a pot of yoghurt with clouds around him as if he is in the sky. In the foreground is a beach scene with a young woman wearing a lab coat holding onto the reigns of a horse. Text accompanying the image stated:
“Trust Your Gut And Follow Your Heart
Love Irish Dairy and it loves you back
With essential vitamins and minerals.”
Each Poster listed the vitamins and minerals present in the particular product referenced in the advertisement:
Milk – Calcium, protein, riboflavin, vitamin B12, iodine, potassium, phosphorus, vitamin B5;
Yoghurt – Calcium, protein, riboflavin, phosphorus, iodine;
Cheese – Calcium, protein, riboflavin, vitamin B12, iodine, vitamin A, phosphorus and zinc.
Each poster also contained the web address “www.thecompletenaturial.ie”
Complaint
The complainant considered that the advertisement was irresponsible by using the image of a person wearing a lab coat together with the wording that the products contained essential vitamins and minerals, as they believed that this was a clear indication that scientific evidence supported the assertion that milk was a healthy foodstuff. They considered that the advertisers, in using the image, had a responsibility to present fuller information, or to avoid being deliberately vague about the nutritional benefits of dairy products.
The complainant considered that there was evidence to show that dairy was a health hazard and was a top source of saturated fat in the Irish diet. They considered that its consumption was a key contributor to the elevated levels of the incidence of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obesity and Alzheimer’s disease. They also stated that there was a growing body of evidence to suggest that dairy consumption was heavily linked to significantly increased risk of breast, ovarian and prostate cancers. They stated that the idea that milk was not only nutritionally beneficial but essential was ubiquitous in Ireland and allowing misleading advertising was allowing organisations to delay the necessary changes to diets that had considerable consequences for public health.
The complainant considered that the advertisers should be subject to a higher level of scrutiny given that members of the public would quite fairly assume that the advertisers are a Government sanctioned body
Response
The advertisers stated that the complaint was disappointing and compiled a series of unfounded accusations, which demonstrated a strong anti-dairy agenda. They said that they had taken great care to ensure that the Love Irish Dairy campaign was compliant with both the ASAI Code and food legislation. They said that the objective of the campaign was aligned with the Department of Health’s Guidelines for healthy eating and simply promoted the recommended intake of dairy through an engaging public health message, which was relevant to the target audience. They said that all of the nutritional information provided in the campaign was fully compliant with the Nutrition Claim Regulation 1924/2006.
The advertisers said that while respecting the individual’s personal feelings and theories regarding dairy, the content of the advertisements was accurate and scientifically validated. They said that they had conducted extensive consumer research focused on understanding the consumer as a person, which meant learning more about their attitudes, and behaviour as they relate to dairy foods. From their research, they knew there was a real “Grá” or love for the taste of Irish dairy but some, however, were limiting their consumption because they had forgotten or were unaware of the wide array of vitamins and minerals provided by milk, yoghurt and cheese. They said that they also looked at the emotional themes that engaged this demographic as consumer decision-making was becoming more emotionally based and they therefore wanted to identify and utilise these themes as strategic foundations for meaningful positioning, differentiation and more authentic storytelling. They said that they were aware that the two themes young people related to and engaged with emotionally were love and humour, and they therefore developed a creative strategy to leverage love and humour in order to engage this audience, while delivering a factual nutrition message.
They said that a series of humorous commercials were created, across various media, to reflect the benefits of a healthy and loving relationship with Irish Dairy. In regard to the posters that the complainant objected to, they said that each poster showed a young man placed in a classic romantic scenario, which was portrayed as a teaser for a romantic movie, however, the post revealed the object of his affection was actually an Irish dairy product. They said that their objective was to embrace the elements of love and humour and the young lady in the lab coat was used to convey that the foundation of the message was based on sound science, that the product provided “essential vitamins and minerals” and that this was substantiated in the footer of the poster, where the specific nutrients were listed.
The advertisers said that their communications involved a single nutrition message which was based on undisputed scientific fact and that there was no deliberate vagueness as suggested by the complainant. They said that the line “Love Irish Dairy and it loves you back with essential vitamins and minerals” referred to the nutrients that the specific dairy products provided. Each poster featured the relevant vitamins and minerals for the product featured;
Milk – Calcium, protein, riboflavin, vitamin B12, iodine, potassium, phosphorus, vitamin B5;
Yoghurt – Calcium, protein, riboflavin, phosphorus, iodine;
Cheese – Calcium, protein, riboflavin, vitamin B12, iodine, vitamin A, phosphorus and zinc.
They said that they had identified the exact nutrients provided by each of the dairy foods by using the criteria as set out in the Nutrition Claim Regulation 1924/2006 and that it was based on the concentration of the nutrients present in 100ml/100g of the product and whether they exceeded the official criteria to be defined as a “source of” or “high in”. They said that nutritional compositions were obtained from McCance and Widdowson’s The Composition of Foods. The advertisers provided data to show that the three products were high in or a source of the vitamins and minerals mentioned in the advertising.
They said that at the bottom of each poster the web address, www.thecompletenatural.ie, was provided and that this website had additional information regarding detailed compositions, recommended serving sizes and the full dietary guidelines set out by the Department of Health in Ireland. In the circumstances they considered that their advertising had contained factual information.
In regard to the reference to vitamins and minerals, they said that these were words that were used in everyday language and were understood to be related to food composition. They rejected the complainants’ assertions that dairy was “a health hazard and a prime public health issue” and also rejected their claims that diary “consumption is a key contributor to our elevated levels of incidence of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obesity and Alzheimer’s disease”. They said that these assertions were simply untrue and unsubstantiated and were not supported. They said that there was a wealth of evidence to support the role of dairy for good health and they provided a link to various health organisations that recommended dairy be included in a balanced diet. They also referred to various studies which supported the intake of dairy products including a study titled “Milk and dairy products: good or bad for human health? An assessment of the totality of scientific evidence” which was conducted by three universities and a study coordinated by University College Dublin that assessed dairy intake in a representative sample of the Irish population. Both studies supported the intake of milk and dairy products. They said that while there was an array of unregulated, anecdotal and opinion-based information on diet and health available through internet search engines, they only use information from peer-reviewed scientific literature and the guidelines set out by bodies such as the Department of Health, the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. They also said that they employ two registered nutritionists who carefully oversee all nutrition and health claims made in their communications. In the advertisements objected to, they said that they had not made any health claims and only verified nutrition claims were made.
Conclusion
Complaint Not Upheld.
The Complaints Committee considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers’ response.
The Committee noted the substantiation provided in relation to the place of dairy products in a healthy diet. They also noted that the advertising had clearly called out the vitamins and minerals in each of the products, which the information provided demonstrated that the levels of each vitamin and mineral referred to in the advertising was such that it met the conditions of use as specified in the EU Register .
They did not consider that the depiction of a person in a lab coat was irresponsible in this case given the overall context depicted and humour illustrated, nor that the advertising was vague about the nutritional benefits of dairy products. In addition, the substantiation provided had shown the place of dairy products in a healthy diet.
In the circumstances, the Committee did not consider that the advertising was in breach of the Code.
ACTION REQUIRED:
No further action required.
