Cow & Gate ad banned
Nutricia’s Cow & Gate brand has been slammed by the advertising watchdog for the second time in 14 months for making unsubstantiated claims.
The latest ruling follows decisions in July last year by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) on campaigns for Nutricia’s Aptamil and Cow & Gate follow-on milk brands.
The ASA received three complaints on the latest campaign for Cow & Gate Complete Care Growing Up Milk. The ad carried a voice over and on-screen text saying “Did you know 8 out of 10 toddlers aren’t getting enough iron?”. It showed a toddler in a high chair and went on to say a toddler needed 6.9 mg to meet the recommended daily intake.
The ad, created by Euro RSCG, then said that Cow & Gate Complete Care Growing Milk as part of a varied diet helped to support brain development, strong bones and teeth, healthy growth.
The complainants challenged whether the claim “Did you know 8 out of 10 toddlers aren’t getting enough iron?” could be substantiated.
Nutricia said that the findings of two studies 15 years apart on national diet and nutrition supported the claim.
The ASA took advice from Department of Health that said there were no recommended RDA of iron for toddlers and that for food labelling purposes the value of iron for children aged between one and three was set at 6 mg. The watchdog said that the ad implied that 6.9 mg was the daily amount of iron required by toddlers to stay healthy and ruled it misleading.
