A gory spoof ad attacking the dairy industry has gone viral to millions after it was banned by the advertising watchdog.
The ad, by British animal advocacy organisation Viva!, runs as a fake spot for yoghurt and uses graphic imagery to draw attention to the dairy industry’s practice of removing calves from their mothers only hours after they’re born.
Called “New From Killer Yoghurts”, the spot ran on Viva!’s social channels but was promptly banned by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after it received just seven complaints.
ASA reportedly banned the spot as it was deemed likely to cause “unnecessary distress and serious and widespread offence” and that it had irresponsibly targeted children.
Watch the spot below. Although B&T does warn it’s not for the squeamish.
Responding to ASA’s ban, Viva! founder Juliet Gellatley said in a statement: “Adverts for meat and dairy products that falsely show farmed animals living in idyll are allowed to be shown despite them portraying staggeringly fake realities.
“People see far more shocking images on TV, films and computer games all the time – in today’s world our ad is not deeply distressing.”
However, such was the media coverage given to the ban that Gellatley revealed the ad had now gone global and had subsequently been seen by millions.
Taking to LinkedIn, Gellatley wrote: “The irony of our killer ad being banned is that global media are now showing it. There’s a link in the biggest online paper in the world to the banned video! It’s literally gone worldwide.”
Meanwhile, in other Viva! news, the organisation has launched crowdfunding in an attempt to have another of its anti-meat ads returned to UK TV screens.
The spot, called “Takeaway the Meat”, won a number of awards and saw Viva! “inundated” with viewers saying it had turned them vegan.
When the ad ran in 2022, it became the second most complained about ad in Britain, hwoever, avoided an ASA ban.
Viva! now hopes to raise £80,000 ($A155,000) to get the spot back on British TV screens. It has thus far managed to raise a quarter of that from donations.
Watch the spot below:
