ASA Adjudication on MGA Entertainment (UK) Ltd
MGA Entertainment (UK) Ltd t/a
Bratz
Regent Business Park
6 Presley Way
Crownhill
Milton KeynesBuckinghamshire
MK8 0ES
Date:
4 July 2012
Media:
Television
Sector:
Leisure
Number of complaints:
1
Agency:
Morningsite AS GmbH
Complaint Ref:
A11-180023
Ad
A TV ad for Bratz All Glammed Up dolls showed the dolls having their hair styled. Lyrics of the accompanying song stated "Step one, do a wave. Step two straight and smooth. All glammed up; in the groove. Step three go curly girl!"
Issue
A viewer challenged whether the visuals in the ad misleadingly exaggerated the extent to which the texture of the doll's hair could be changed.
BCAP Code
Response
MGA said the doll featured 'memory' hair and a variety of hairstyles could be achieved using the styling tools included with the product, and they believed the ad accurately reflected the hairstyles achievable. They sent a sample doll to Clearcast for testing and the ad was approved on the basis that the visual claims in the ad could be substantiated. MGA said the complaint was the only one they had received about the capability of the product. They said the doll was no longer being advertised as they were promoting new ranges of Bratz dolls.
Clearcast said they tested the sample against the ad and believed it to be a reasonable demonstration of the product's capability.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA asked for a sample of the doll. We noted the 'memory' hair consisted of small colour streaks in the doll's hair, which could be styled using the tools supplied and the memory hair would 'remember' the style for a short while before returning to normal for styling again.
However, we noted the doll shown in the ad appeared to have considerably more, and thicker, memory hair than the sample doll and the hairstyles were more luxuriant and stylised than we were able to achieve following the instructions provided. The 'normal' doll hair also appeared to have been styled, which was not possible with the tools supplied with the doll.
We considered that the demonstration in the ad had exaggerated the effects achievable with the doll's hair and therefore concluded that the ad was misleading.
The ad breached BCAP Code rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 3.9 (Substantiation), 3.12 (Exaggeration) and 5.7 (Children).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form.
