ASA bans Heinz baby food ad

The Advertising Standards Authority has banned a TV advertisement for Heinz’s baby nutrition brand, Nurture for misleading consumers.

Nurture

The ad, which was broadcast 18 months ago, featured an adult leafing through the pages of a book entitled “Baby Nutrition”. The book showed a baby growing from six-months-old into a child about to walk towards a woman who lifts him into her lap. Abott Mead Vickers BBDO created the spot.

A voiceover says: “As it grows, a baby needs a special combination of nutrients to sustain the incredible growth in its brain, body and immune system. To provide for those three essential aspects of growth, Heinz created new Nurture, an advanced complete follow-on formula to help nourish, protect and develop your baby.”

Three viewers claimed it “implied health claims with regard to children’s immunity and development which they believed could not be substantiated”. The ASA agreed, ruling that Heinz’s evidence “was not sufficiently robust to support the products claims in relation to children’s immunity and development.”

Elsewhere, a Flora TV campaign, which claimed the spread contributes to consumer health, was cleared by the ASA following complaints that the claims may have been misleading.

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