Tesco Mobile has had three ads banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for alluding to offensive expletives.
All three food-themed advertisements intended to embody the annoyance felt by customers when the “big mobile networks” raise monthly bill prices. One advertisement stated “What a load of shiitake”, while another said, “They’re taking the pistachio”. A third exclaimed, “For fettuccine’s sake”.
The ads featured in a paid-for Twitter post, three outdoor posters and the Daily Express and the Daily Mail.
A total of 52 people complained to the ASA, claiming that the ads were offensive and that they were inappropriate for display where they could be seen by children.
Tesco Mobile responded by stating plainly that it had not used any offensive words or imagery and therefore believed that the ads were “unlikely” to cause widespread offence.
“The company said that they prepared the ads with consumers in mind who were facing increasing prices due to the cost-of-living crisis, since the ads highlighted that they were not increasing prices, unlike other providers,” the ASA said.
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The supermarket chain also highlighted that it had conducted an internal review to ensure that the ads were in accordance with the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) code.
While Clear Channel stated that it was the advertisers responsibility to comply with CAP code when proceeding with an out-of-home campaigns, JC Decaux contacted the CAP Copy Advice team to advise the committee that the ads would likely be in direct breach of the CAP Code.
However, the ASA revealed, The Daily Express said that while it was clear that the words “shiitake”, “pistachio”, and “fettucine” alluded to swear words, they believed that was not as offensive as using the expletives themselves. The paper also acknowledged that although the ads were humourous, humour was indeed subjective and needed to be gauged in light of its audience. Some 89% of the Daily Express’ readership is over the age of 35 years.
Ultimately, the ASA ruled that the ads would breach the CAP ‘Harm and Offence’ rule as the words were too closely linked to expletives “both phonetically and orthographically”.
The authority also stated that the Twitter post and outdoor posters were viewable by a general audience, including children, acknowledging that parents would want their children to avoid these expletives, or obvious allusions to them.
The ASA added: “However, we noted that the majority of readers of the Daily Mail and the Daily Express were adults. We also acknowledged those publications were not free and had to be actively purchased in a shop or by subscription. We therefore considered that children were unlikely to see the ads featured in these newspapers.”
Despite this, the ASA concluded: “The ads must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Tesco Mobile Ltd to avoid using words or phrases which were likely to cause serious offence.”
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