Vegan Friendly UK and Tesco Plant Chef adverts are banned

Vegan TV advert that featured fish gasping for air and crying cows is BANNED for being too graphic – while separate ad for Tesco plant burger made ‘misleading’ claims about its ‘positive impact on planet’

• Vegan Friendly ad drew complaints about graphic images of animals in distress
• Tesco’s Plant Chef burger ads had ‘misleading’ claims over environmental claims
• ASA received 63 complaints about Vegan Friendly advert and 171 about Tesco ad 

Two television adverts promoting vegan products or lifestyles have been banned – with one for the Vegan Friendly UK group drawing complaints about its graphic images of animals in distress alongside people eating.

The other for Tesco’s Plant Chef burgers has been banned over ‘misleading’ claims that the products could make a positive difference to the environment compared with their meat equivalents.

The Vegan Friendly UK ad, seen in March, showed two women and one man eating around a table as well as clips of a fish head which was still gasping for air, a live piglet alongside a pig with its eyes closed and a cow’s face which appeared to have tears coming from its eye.

A further clip showed a cow’s skinned head with its eyes and teeth still present lying on its side. As those at the table continued to eat, text stated: ‘No animal was harmed, consumed, or purchased to make this advert,’ followed by the text: ‘Make the connection.’

The ad was given a restriction preventing it from being transmitted in or adjacent to programmes commissioned for, principally directed at or likely to appeal to children under 16. 

A screen grab taken from the Vegan Friendly UK advert of a live piglet alongside a pig

A screen grab taken from the Vegan Friendly UK advert of a cow’s face which appears to have tears coming from its eye

The Advertising Standards Authority received 63 complaints, including that the ad contained gratuitous violence towards animals, which caused unnecessary distress to viewers.

Vegan Friendly UK said the clips used in the ad did not portray actions of violence or harm and that such imagery was seen regularly in butchers’ or fishmongers’ windows on the average UK high street.

They clarified that the aim of the ad was to encourage those meat eaters who were against animal cruelty to reconsider their actions, adding that they believed that their ad did not vilify meat eaters but ‘promoted love and compassion for all beings and discouraged discrimination against other sentient beings’.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) noted that both Clearcast and Vegan Friendly UK understood that the imagery shown in the ad was akin to what viewers could expect to see in cookery programmes or on the high street when walking past a butcher’s shop or fishmonger’s shop, but said it considered that ‘several of the clips shown, such as the clips which depicted animals in distress or the skinned cow’s head, would likely not be seen in these places’.

It concluded: ‘For those reasons, we concluded that the ad was likely to cause distress to both younger and adult audiences and therefore was not suitable for broadcast on TV regardless of scheduling restrictions.’

The ASA ruled that the ad must not appear again, adding: ‘We told Vegan Friendly UK to avoid using imagery which was likely to cause distress to both younger and adult audiences.’

Meanwhile, as for Tesco’s campaign, the TV, video on demand, radio, press, Twitter and website ads in October and November featured a woman about to eat a burger while hearing the words on television: ‘The planet is continuing to warm,’ after which a voice-over said: ‘Now that’s not what Zoe likes to hear, but she’s gonna roll up her sleeves and do her bit … and there it is, a delicious Tesco Plant Chef burger.

‘We’ve lowered the price of dozens of our Plant Chef products because a little swap can make a difference to the planet.’ 

Tesco’s website stated: ‘We’ve lowered the price of dozens of Plant Chef products Because a little swap is good for your pocket and even better for the planet.’ 

A screen grab taken from Tesco’s Plant Chef burgers advert of a woman eating a Tesco burger

Tesco said customers ‘can continue to count on us to help them enjoy a better balanced diet’

The ads attracted 171 complaints that the claims around swapping products were misleading.

Tesco said the claims were not, nor meant to be, ‘absolute environmental claims’ as they did not claim that the products were wholly sustainable or good for the planet.

The supermarket giant said the wording ‘little’ played an important part in determining the breadth of the claims, adding that they were not claiming that the products were sustainable or good in and of themselves, but that by eating plant-based products as opposed to meat-based, consumers could make a small or ‘little’ difference.

The ASA said: ‘Because we considered the ads implied that switching to products in the Plant Chef range would positively affect the environment, we expected to see evidence that that was the case based on the full life cycle of the Plant Chef burger in comparison with a meat burger.

‘However, we understood that Tesco did not hold any evidence in relation to the full lifecycle of any of the products in the Plant Chef range, or of the burger featured in the ads. We were therefore unable to assess the product’s total environment impact over its life cycle compared with that of a meat burger.

‘Because we had not seen evidence … that demonstrated that Plant Chef products could make a positive environmental difference to the planet compared to their meat equivalents, nor had we seen evidence for the full life cycle of the Plant Chef burger, we concluded the claims regarding their positive benefits to the planet had not been substantiated and were likely to mislead.’

Separately, the ASA found that a radio and TV ad for Sainsbury’s that promoted the general benefits to the environment of reducing meat protein in substitution for plant protein were not misleading.

Four complainants had argued that chickpeas, lentils and beans featured in the ads were grown and imported from abroad and so would have a greater environmental impact than domestically produced meat.

However the ASA ruled: ‘Because we considered both ads would be understood as promoting the general benefits to the environment of reducing meat protein in substitution for plant protein, we concluded the claims ‘better for the planet’ and ‘help the planet’ were not misleading.’

A Tesco spokesman said: ‘We offer hundreds of plant-based options and while we are disappointed by this outcome, our customers can continue to count on us to help them enjoy a better balanced diet with plenty more delicious and affordable plant-based products in the pipeline.’

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