ASA rebukes Walkers over mailout’s crisp salt claims

Walkers Crisps, the PepsiCo-owned snacks brand, has been rapped by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over claims it made about the salt content of its crisps in a mailing to consumers.

The watchdog has upheld complaints from pressure group Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) about the mailing, which was distributed with 25g bags of Walkers crisps. CASH complained that the claim about comparatively low salt levels was misleading and irresponsible because Walkers did not make clear that it applied only to 12 out of 57 of its branded products.

Walkers argued that detailed information in the mailing, created by Real Adventure, referred to the attached bag and only Walkers Crisps, not other products. But the complaint was upheld as the ASA found text including “We have reduced the salt in our crisps” would lead consumers to believe levels in all the company’s products had been cut. Walkers has been asked to list brands excluded from claims in future campaigns.

The authority has also upheld a complaint from CASH that Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) information in the mailing referred only to adult guidelines and was not relevant for under-11s, despite Walkers claiming that the campaign was targeted specifically at adults.

But the ASA dismissed complaints about dietary information and comparisons between salt levels in crisps and white bread, made in the mailing and also a Walkers poster campaign by Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO.

⢠The ASA has thrown out complaints about a campaign for Unilever’s Birds Eye, created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty.

The Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation, an MSP, MP and eight members of the public were upset by aspects of the TV, radio and poster executions about wild Pacific salmon, including implications that Scottish salmon was inferior to fish caught in the Pacific Ocean and that frozen food was healthier than fresh produce.