ASA Adjudication on Coca-Cola Ireland

Ad

A TV ad, for Coca-Cola, showed a man sitting on a bus drinking Coca-Cola Zero. He took a drink and then said to the passenger next to him "Real taste and zero sugar. And what about great life and zero downside?" He stood up and said to the rest of the passengers on the bus "Growing up zero: Giving up and why don't relationships come with a gap year? And why don't bosses come with a mute button?" With increasing enthusiasm, the passengers and driver said "yeah" to each point he made. He was then shown standing on the roof of the bus and shouting through a traffic cone at a gathering crowd and a news helicopter. He shouted "And why can't weekends start on Wednesday? And why can't chick flicks give women realistic expectations. I'm not a yes man, I'm Dan, but I have real taste and zero sugar and this is life as it should be". When he stood on the roof of the bus initially the text "Filmed under controlled conditions" appeared for a few seconds and then was replaced with "For your safety do not attempt the stunts shown" for a few seconds.

Issue

The viewer challenged that the ad was irresponsible, because it could encourage car surfing.

BCAP TV Code

Response

McCann Erickson Dublin (McCann Dublin) replied on behalf of Coca-Cola Ireland (CCI). They explained that the ad was created in Australia for Coke Zero and that it had tested well against their target market of 20 to 29-year-old males. They pointed out that CCI had a strict policy of not advertising to children and so all their TV ads had ex-kids restrictions in the UK and Republic of Ireland. They explained that they had re-edited the ad to increase the legibility of the safety message "Filmed under controlled conditions. For your own safety do not attempt the stunts shown". They believed the ad would not encourage car surfing, because they were confident that their target market of 20 to 29-year-old males would understand the difference between fantasy and reality. They argued that the scenario shown in the ad was so surreal that it did not condone or encourage dangerous behaviour. They pointed out that the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC), RTE and the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland had all approved the ad with an ex-kids rating.

The BACC said they fully endorsed the response of McCann Dublin. They explained that they had taken the view that the TV ad was fantastical in nature, not gritty or realistic and believed it in no way encouraged or condoned dangerous behaviour. They said they had imposed an ex-kids restriction, which removed the ad from programmes watched by children who might be too young to be able to distinguish between fantasy and reality to be absolutely safe. On that basis, they argued that the complaint should not be upheld.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA acknowledged the timing restriction to keep the ad away from young children and we noted it was clear from the on-screen text that the events in the ad were staged and performed in a controlled environment. Although we considered that the TV ad was likely to be seen by many viewers outside CCI's target market of 20 to 29-year-old men, we considered that viewers were likely to see the ad as over-the-top fantasy, not reality. We concluded that the ad was unlikely to encourage emulation by viewers and did not condone behaviour prejudicial to health and safety.

We investigated the ad under CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 6.7 (Health and safety) but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)