Advertisment
The campaign featured two advertisements.
TV ad 1 (from the perspective of the older brother):
Scene 1
We see a boy laying on a couch watching cartoons on TV. A younger boy comes running to the room, grabs a TV remote off the floor and wants to change the channel. The older boy gets up and says, “Leave it alone”, and two of them begin fighting by each pulling the remote. Their mother comes to the room and says, “Leave your brother alone!”. The older boy drops the remote, says “Fine” and leaves the room.
Scene 2
We now see the family in the park, ahead are the mother and father, who is carrying the younger brother on his back. Mother is holding his hand at the same time. We see the older brother walking behind them.
Scene 3
We see the older brother reading a book. He looks over and sees his mother telling a story to his younger brother and then he turns around and goes to sleep. We see the mother then looking at what her older son is doing.
Scene 4
We see the older boy coming to his room and dropping off his bag to the floor. He notices a red box on his bed, opens it and see a mobile phone inside. We hear a beep and see an SMS message. The background displays a photo of his mother, father and his younger brother. He smiles. The SMS from Mum states, “So we can always talk, don’t grow up too fast”.
Scene 5
We now see mother hugging and chatting with the older son, and then the entire family around him while he is showing his new phone.
On screen:
RED Family allows Vodafone bill pay customers to add any combination of current bill pay plans to their account and receive monthly €20 discount for the 3rd-6th subscriptions only.
Pricing subject to change and stock subject to availability. See vodafone.ie/terms for full terms.
MVO:
On Vodafone Red Family, now you can enjoy mobile plans and technology that grow with your family so you can always be connected.
Vodafone. Together we can.
TV ad 2 (from the perspective of the younger brother):
Scene 1
We see a boy running to the room, grabs a TV remote off the floor to change the channel. The older boy gets up and says, “Give it back”, and two of them begin fighting by each pulling the remote. Their mother comes to the room and says, “Leave your little brother alone!”. The older boy drops the remote, says “Fine” and leaves the room. The younger boy stays in the room and looks disappointed that his brother would not play with him.
Scene 2
We now see the family in the park and father is carrying the younger boy on his back. We see the older brother walking behind them. The younger boy turns around and see his brother unhappy.
Scene 3
We see mother telling a story to her younger child. He turns around and sees his older brother looking unhappy as he finishes reading his book, turns around and goes to sleep.
Scene 4
We see the younger boy talking into a wristwatch, “Now, dad?”. We hear father saying, “Yes, go, go, go!” We see a boy running up the stairs and into the room, leaving a red box with a phone in it on his brother’s bed. He says, “Mission complete, dad”.
Scene 5
We see the older boy coming to his room and dropping off his bag to the floor and opening the box found on his bed. We see him sitting and his mother and looking at his brother, who is outside the room with their father. We see a younger boy receiving a text message from his brother on his smart watch, “Thanks little bro!”, smiles, and joins the rest of the family.
On screen:
RED Family allows Vodafone bill pay customers to add any combination of current bill pay plans to their account and receive monthly €20 discount for the 3rd-6th subscriptions only.
Pricing subject to change and stock subject to availability. See vodafone.ie/terms for full terms.
MVO:
On Vodafone RED Family enjoy mobile plans and technology, like Neo the smart kids watch featuring Disney, so you can stay connected and grow with your family.
Vodafone. Together we can.
Complaint
Eight complaints were received regarding the advertisement raising the following issues:
Issue 1:
The depiction of older child being ignored suggested that a mobile phone was a replacement and a compensation for a lack of parents’ attention.
Issue 2:
The advertising suggested that teenagers were not included in family life unless they had a mobile phone.
Issue 3:
The advertising suggested that mobile phones were a way of parents managing children’s emotional difficulties.
Issue 4:
The advertising suggested that parents should purchase mobile phones for their children, influencing parents’ and kids’ decisions, whereas the complainant stated that this should be a decision for parents.
Response
The advertisers said that their voiceover lines summarised their advertising campaign’s ambition, that Vodafone RED Family “has a range of mobile plans and technology that grow with your family so you can always be connected”. They said that in this promise, backed by research, they knew that as children grow, the way that they engaged with their family changed, family dynamics changed and evolved, and families must adapt to this. They said they offered a range of flexible technology solutions and plans that could help families stay in contact, no matter what stage of their digital journey they were at. They said they also recognised that all families were different and while this campaign depicted the story of one particular family, they knew that families grew and changed at undefined rates, and so they offered reassurance that they had agile solutions that catered for this, rather than dictating what mobile technology parents should introduce and when.
The advertisers said that there were two advertisements in this suite on air at the same time which depicted the same family but two different family perspectives: an older brother perspective in the first advertisement, who felt he had outgrown some of the more childlike activities he had used to engage with (story-time, piggyback rides); and a younger brother who noticed this and, who, with his family, sought to find a way for them to grow and evolve together as a family. They said that in the first advertisement the older brother (unlike the younger brother) was depicted as just having had outgrown some of the more childish aforementioned family routines that assured connectivity with parents, and the mobile phone was depicted as a way to help mum (who had noticed the son growing up) and her son kept in contact no matter how grown up he became or where he was. They provided a screenshot of Mum’s text message which stated, “So we can always talk, don’t grow up to fast”.
The advertisers said that in the other parallel advertisement, the other brother who was younger and not ready for a phone, was seen utilising the Vodafone Neo watch that allowed him to talk and keep in contact with his parents, thus underlining the campaign line that Vodafone offered technology options that would suit your family no matter what stage it was at – Vodafone RED Family “as a range of mobile plans and technology that grow with your family so you can always be connected”.
The advertisers said that their campaign was not suggesting a replacement for traditional communication, rather opening alternative avenues, (kids watch and first mobile) that suited and aided the changing communication needs of families. The said that the advertisements were clearly aimed at the parents not the kids and that the voiceover itself called out to the parents of families, not to the kids. They said that they ensured their approach was based on real life family insights, gathered from research they carried out and published consumer research in the area of technology and children:
92% of kids between 8 -12 have smart phones
82% have social media accounts and messaging apps
(Reference: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/most-children-aged-8-12-have-smart-phone-and-social-media-profile-1.4479406 )
They said they were not trying to encourage parents to give phones, they knew they were doing that already, as the research outlined. They said that they were saying, if this was a reality for your family, do it with Vodafone and they would be the best partner in navigating this process for your family needs.
The advertisers said that all approval and clearance protocols were followed, and no watershed was required as a result of this clearance process. They said that media was targeted at an adult only audience of 25 – 44-year-olds across all media and no spots were bought around children’s programming.
The advertisers said that the way the script was written and the way they produced it was not and was never to depict the older brother being ignored by his parents. They said that the whole point of the advertisement was that the parents, especially the mother (and indeed the younger brother in the second advertisement), wanted to ensure the older brother who was growing up remained connected to her and the family, and that some of the past ways to connect, like the bed time story and the piggyback, were no longer applicable to the age of the older brother (+12 years of age).
Conclusion
The Complaints Committee considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers’ response.
Issue 1, 2, and 3 – Not Upheld:
After examining the advertisements, the Committee noted that the theme was centred around the portrayal of the same family from two different perspectives, one from an older brother and one from the younger brother. The Committee considered that the advertisements had depicted the family in various settings with the mother looking at and being aware of the older child, in a concerned manner and that, having received the mobile phone in a way that was coordinated by the whole family, in one advertisement, she expresses the wish to her older son in a text that they will always talk. The Committee noted that the style and content of the advertisement had been intended to offer connectivity options for families who want to stay connected and was based on real life family insights, gathered from research. While the Committee appreciated the concerns raised by the complainants, the Committee considered that when taken as a whole and in context, the advertisements were not in breach of the Code on the grounds raised by the complainants.
Issue 4 – Not Upheld:
The Complaints Committee noted the concerns raised by the complainant. The Committee also noted the steps were taken by the advertisers regarding the content and placement of the advertisements and that the media was targeted at an adult only audience across all media and not around children’s programming. The Committee noted that the style and content of the advertisements had been intended to offer connectivity options for families who want to stay connected and was based on real life family insights, gathered from research. On examining the advertisements against the Code, the Committee did not consider that they were in breach of the Code on the grounds raised in the complaint.
ACTION REQUIRED:
No further action required.
