Household (Kitchen Appliances)

The television advertisement depicted a video montage of people using the Quooker tap at a kitchen sink. The people were shown to use the various settings of the tap while a voiceover said, “With a Quooker tap you always have 100 degrees boiling, hot, cold, filtered, chilled and sparkling water all from one tap”. The final person in the video montage shown using the tap was a young boy on his own, filling multiple bottles with water and laughing. The advertisement then closed out with a call to action to visit their website to avail of their current offer.

The complainants stated that the advertisement depicted a dangerous scenario in which a child could be scalded by using a tap which had the functionality to dispense boiling water.

The advertisers stated that the advertisement had previously been approved of by Clear Cast in the UK. They also provided a study from the Dutch Burns Unit which they said suggested there may be less hot water burns involving children with the Quooker tap than that of other hot water household appliances such as a kettle.

The advertisers stated that children cannot burn themselves when using the Quooker tap as the hot and cold functions were separated from the boiling function. The boiling function was protected by a double push and turn mechanism which meant that it was not possible to accidentally switch the boiling function on.

Complaint not upheld.

The Complaints Committee considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers’ response. The Committee noted the explanation about the safety feature of the product which prevented the boiling function being used accidentally. They noted the advertising featured the different uses of the product and that only adults were shown using the boiling water function. They also noted that when the child was shown using the product, it was to demonstrate the sparkling water function. They considered that the portrayal was of a child who appeared to be in an age category sufficiently mature to responsibly mange the product mechanism. Taking all of this into account, they did not consider that the advertisement had featured an unsafe practice and therefore the advertisement was not in breach of the Code on the basis suggested in the complaint.

ACTION REQUIRED:
No further action required.