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A victory here for low-carbers, sugary cereal was claimed to be healthy, the Advertising Standards Authority made them retract!
A member of the public had gone to the cinema expecting to enjoy a film. Upon leaving the cinema they felt compelled to contact the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to lodge a complaint about a commercial they had seen for the breakfast cereal Frosties.
The cinema commercial in question featured young boys playing football and practising their skills in the streets of Rio. Tony the Tiger, the cartoon character used to promote Kellogg’s Frosties, appeared and encouraged the boys with the line, “Not bad … but we can do better than that”. As the boys continued to practice a voiceover stated, “Train hard, eat right and earn your stripes.” before finishing with a shot of a bowl of cereal and a packet of Frosties. The member of the public who contacted the ASA objected to the claim “eat right” as she believed it implied the cereal was healthy and was therefore misleading.
Kellogg’s responded by stressing that Frosties did have a part to play in forming part of a healthy balanced diet and they were well known for encouraging and supporting sporting activities. They produced tables of information comparing the levels of sugar, fat and calorie content found in a typical serving of Frosties with other well known cereal brands. They also illustrated how Frosties and a selection of breakfast cereals compared with other ‘typical’ breakfast foods such as grilled bacon, sausages, fried eggs and toast with jam in terms of the sugar, fat and calorie content. Finally they highlighted how many children and teenagers replaced breakfast with confectionary items and used a table to show the number of calories and grams of sugar and fat found in a selection of snack foods. The advertisers also pointed out that a 30g serving of Frosties without milk provided a high percentage of the recommended daily intake of several essential vitamins and minerals. Furthermore they indicated that they were going to put information on balanced diets and exercise on the backs of their packets.
The ASA noted the advertisers encouraged children to participate in sport and that they were going to provide information on balanced diets on their packets. The Authority was concerned however that despite the advertiser arguing Frosties had a role to play as part of a balanced diet they had not actually referred to this in the commercial. Rather, the claim “… eat right …” referred to Frosties. When looking at the evidence sent by the advertisers the ASA saw that Frosties bore similar comparison to some other cereals in terms of fat, calorie and sugar content. Overall though, Frosties contained more sugar than an apple, fruit juice or plain yoghurt. Nor did the comparison with a selection of confectionery and snack foods demonstrate that Frosties were a healthy product. Notably the table provided by the advertiser showed that Frosties with 125ml of milk contained more sugar than a jam doughnut, a custard tart or a flap jack.
The Authority believed the underlying message of the commercial which showed children playing football with the claim “eat right” implied that the product was healthy. Because of the high sugar content of Frosties the Authority believed the claim was misleading. Because it was found to be in breach of the code the advertisers were told not to repeat the claim “eat right” in future advertisements for Frosties. As the food industry comes under the public spotlight amid growing concerns about advertising to children, this case provided serious food for thought not only for Kelloggs but for all food industry advertisers about the claims they can and can’t make about their product.
A member of the public had gone to the cinema expecting to enjoy a film. Upon leaving the cinema they felt compelled to contact the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to lodge a complaint about a commercial they had seen for the breakfast cereal Frosties.
The cinema commercial in question featured young boys playing football and practising their skills in the streets of Rio. Tony the Tiger, the cartoon character used to promote Kellogg’s Frosties, appeared and encouraged the boys with the line, “Not bad … but we can do better than that”. As the boys continued to practice a voiceover stated, “Train hard, eat right and earn your stripes.” before finishing with a shot of a bowl of cereal and a packet of Frosties. The member of the public who contacted the ASA objected to the claim “eat right” as she believed it implied the cereal was healthy and was therefore misleading.
Kellogg’s responded by stressing that Frosties did have a part to play in forming part of a healthy balanced diet and they were well known for encouraging and supporting sporting activities. They produced tables of information comparing the levels of sugar, fat and calorie content found in a typical serving of Frosties with other well known cereal brands. They also illustrated how Frosties and a selection of breakfast cereals compared with other ‘typical’ breakfast foods such as grilled bacon, sausages, fried eggs and toast with jam in terms of the sugar, fat and calorie content. Finally they highlighted how many children and teenagers replaced breakfast with confectionary items and used a table to show the number of calories and grams of sugar and fat found in a selection of snack foods. The advertisers also pointed out that a 30g serving of Frosties without milk provided a high percentage of the recommended daily intake of several essential vitamins and minerals. Furthermore they indicated that they were going to put information on balanced diets and exercise on the backs of their packets.
The ASA noted the advertisers encouraged children to participate in sport and that they were going to provide information on balanced diets on their packets. The Authority was concerned however that despite the advertiser arguing Frosties had a role to play as part of a balanced diet they had not actually referred to this in the commercial. Rather, the claim “… eat right …” referred to Frosties. When looking at the evidence sent by the advertisers the ASA saw that Frosties bore similar comparison to some other cereals in terms of fat, calorie and sugar content. Overall though, Frosties contained more sugar than an apple, fruit juice or plain yoghurt. Nor did the comparison with a selection of confectionery and snack foods demonstrate that Frosties were a healthy product. Notably the table provided by the advertiser showed that Frosties with 125ml of milk contained more sugar than a jam doughnut, a custard tart or a flap jack.
The Authority believed the underlying message of the commercial which showed children playing football with the claim “eat right” implied that the product was healthy. Because of the high sugar content of Frosties the Authority believed the claim was misleading. Because it was found to be in breach of the code the advertisers were told not to repeat the claim “eat right” in future advertisements for Frosties. As the food industry comes under the public spotlight amid growing concerns about advertising to children, this case provided serious food for thought not only for Kelloggs but for all food industry advertisers about the claims they can and can’t make about their product.
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