Watchdog slams McCain chip ad

McCain has come under fire for promoting its Home Fries as “greens” as part of the £2m relaunch of the oven chips range.

The new ad shows a big bowl of Home Fries with the strapline: “Eat more greens”. The Advertising Standards Authority has already received three complaints that the ad is misleading because potatoes do not count towards the required five portions of fruit and vegetables and do not count as “greens”. The ASA is to consider whether it investigates the complaints.

The new campaign, created by Beattie McGuinness Bungay, was launched earlier this year with the aim to differentiate the coated chips product from its everyday ranges and position it as a premium product (MW December 20, 2007). The company is understood to be keen to capitalise on the fact that its oven chips are lower in fat.

McCain Rustic Oven Chips claim to be the first chip to score “green” on all four counts of the new traffic light labelling scheme, with just 3% fat and the only frozen oven chip with the skin left on.

Separately, the ASA has not upheld complaints against an ad for Boots own-branded nipple cream. Breastfeeding lobby groups complained that it implied that sore and cracked nipples from breastfeeding was a common side-effect and not because of incorrect breastfeeding techniques.

The press and radio ad for Boots expert nipple cream received 19 complaints.