Flora ‘blood vessel health’ claim banned in ASA ruling

Unilever Bestfoods has been slammed by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over a press ad which suggested that Flora pro.activ spread helped maintain blood vessel health. It will not be allowed to repeat the claim.

The food giant argued that it was a health maintenance claim. While it did not consider this misleading, Unilever agreed to add a reference to the need for a healthy diet overall, but told the ASA that it wanted to retain the phrase “helps keep blood vessels healthy?”

The ASA, however, said there was not enough evidence for this. It ruled that the original ad was misleading and told Unilever not to use the claim again.

⢠The ASA has rejected complaints over a TV ad for computer game 24 The Game. Viewers had complained that graphics shown were superior to those in the game. TBWA/London, the agency responsible , pointed out that these scenes were special end-level “cut scenes”, revealed when players completed various missions. The ASA accepted that such scenes were commonplace, and ruled that the ad was not misleading.