SodaStream forced to pull ‘denigrating’ ad

SodaStream was forced to pull a television advertisement hours before it was scheduled to break after the body that clears spots for air slammed it as “denigrating” to the soft drinks market.

SodaStream

Broadcast clearance body ClearCast ruled the ad, which claimed consumers could save up to 2,000 plastic bottles every year by using SodaStream to make soft drinks from tap water at home, was not fit to air. The decision came yesterday afternoon (22 November) ahead of its scheduled debut during ITV1’s “I’m a Celebrity” last night.

In a statement ClearCast says: “The majority [at ClearCast] decided that the ad could be seen to tell people not to go to supermarkets and buy soft drinks, instead help to save the environment by buying a SodaStream. 

“We thought it was denigration of the bottled drinks market.”

The ad, part of an £11m global campaign , has already run in the United States, Sweden and Australia.

Fiona Hope, SodaStream UK’s managing director, called the decision “absurd”.

“We have neither named nor disparaged any of our competitors in the industry and cannot see how this makes any sense, she says, adding that the company “push to reverse this decision.”

Talking to Marketing Week ahead of the launch, Fiona Hope, UK MD of SodaStream said the existing soft drinks industry model is “not fit for the 21st century”, adding “they [soft drinks manufactures] all talk about how much recycling they do but to us recycling is overrated and the world could live with an awful lot less plastic in the first place.”

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