SodaStream hits back at ad ban

SodaStream is hitting back at its ad ban with a TV spot that directs viewers to the original campaign on YouTube, following Clearcast’s last minute cancellation of its campaign last week.

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SodaStream is hitting back at its ad ban with a TV spot that directs viewers to the original campaign on YouTube, following Clearcast’s last minute cancellation of its campaign last week.

The brand will now air a simple three-frame ad to “protest” the ban and drive traffic to the original ad online. It includes the strapline “If you love the bubbles set them free” on a black background, and then directs audiences to YouTube to see the ad. It is set to the original soundtrack which includes sounds of bottles bursting.

SodaStream says it hopes to demonstrate that “it will not be silenced”.

The “bubble blackout” ad will break during ‘I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here’ tonight (29 November).

The TV ad was pulled by Clearcast just hours before it was due to air last Thursday (22 November) as the advertising body believed it “denigrated” the soft drinks industry.

The brand hopes to promote a “powerful” sustainability message about reducing the plastic bottle waste created by the drinks industry by encouraging people to adopt SodaStream.

SodaStream is appealing Clearcast’s decision and branded it “absurd”. A final decision on whether the ad can air is expected on 3 December.

Fiona Hope, SodaStream UK managing director, says: “We’ve made it very clear that we think the decision to ban our global ad is ridiculous.  We would still like to allow UK viewers the chance to see our advert that has been aired across many other countries. We are confident that the British consumer is sophisticated enough to recognise that the

“Blackout Bubble” is only a filler ad and that we’re inviting them to see the real advert on YouTube and decide for themselves whether a ban is justified.”

“There is absolutely nothing disparaging in our original campaign. Every day, 35 million bottles are discarded in the UK, and only around 45% are recycled.  In this day and age it makes no sense to hold back the truth from consumers, even if that truth isn’t comfortable to some of us”

It already has more than one million hits on YouTube and has already aired in America, Sweden and Australia as part of an £11m global campaign.

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