ASA to look into ‘uncouth’ Fanta TV ad

As the number of complaints about a KFC ad featuring women singing with their mouths full tops the 1,500 mark, the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has begun receiving objections to another ad featuring “bad table-manners”.

The ad in question is a Soul-created television commercial for Fanta’s new sugar-free variant, Fanta Z, which broke last week. It contains scenes in which actors spit out mouthfuls of soft drinks and has already triggered 87 complaints.

This week, the ASA upheld 57 complaints about a controversial ad for Reebok featuring rapper 50 Cent, which was accused of glamorising gun culture.The NMI-created ad, which has already been voluntarily withdrawn by the company, showed the rapper counting to nine, in reference to the fact that he has been shot nine times.

The ASA says the commercial was inappropriate and could be seen to condone gun culture and glamorise violence. The campaign cannot be shown again.

More than 600 complaints about a Pot Noodle TV ad were rejected by the ASA. The innuendo-heavy campaign, features a man blowing a hunting horn and the slogan “Have you got the pot noodle horn?” The ad was created by HHCL/Red Cell.

Although the ASA says the campaign is “brash” and “subversive”, it does not agree that it is too explicit to be shown, and adds that restrictions on showing times are already in force.