Birds Eye poster cleared of insulting Indian restaurants

by Daniel Farey-Jones, Brand Republic 22-Jun-05, 10:30

LONDON - The advertising watchdog has rejected a complaint about a poster for Unilever's Birds Eye food range, which accused the ad, created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, of attacking curry houses.

The poster shows two plates of curry with a cartoon monster poking out of the left-hand plate, labelled "Other curries contain artificial nasties". The right-hand plate was labelled "Ours don't" and the strapline below the Birds Eye logo read: "We don't play with your food".

The offended person from London pointed out that the poster appeared in an area known for curry houses, and said that the implication that curries other than Birds Eye contained "artificial nasties" was misleading, offensive and denigratory.

Unilever defended its poster by saying it was meant to compare Birds Eye curries with competitors' chilled and frozen curries, not restaurant and takeaway curries, and to address consumers' concerns about frozen food in a light-hearted way.

The Advertising Standards Authority agreed that the poster had a light-hearted tone and that viewers were likely to realise that it was not referring to curries from Indian restaurants.

According to the ASA, because the poster did not name the advertiser's competitors nor any Indian restaurants, it was unlikely to be seen as denigratory to specific food manufacturers or curry houses.

Unilever also said it is not planning to repeat the campaign but may reuse the strapline.

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