Dairylea cheese ad showing child eating while upside down banned over choking risk
An advert featuring two girls hanging upside down while one eats a Dairylea cheese triangle has been banned following complaints that it could encourage unsafe behaviour.
The video-on-demand ad, seen on ITV Hub, All 4 and My 5 in August, shows the girls hanging upside down from the crossbar of a goal at a local park and chatting. One wonders where food goes if you are upside down, and when the other suggests her brain, she opens the cheese snack and eats it.
Fourteen viewers complained that the advert condoned or encouraged unsafe behaviour that could be dangerous for children to emulate.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it sought advice from the Child Accident Prevention Trust, whose view was that the scenario depicted in the ad represented a situation where there was potentially a high risk of choking.
The ASA also noted that one complainant had reported that their three-year-old relative, after seeing the ad, ate their food whilst hanging upside down.
The ASA said: “We therefore considered that eating whilst upside down was an unsafe practice and one which could be dangerous for children to emulate.
“We therefore concluded that a scheduling restriction was not sufficient to reduce the risk of harm and that the ad breached the code.”
The ASA ruled that the ad must not appear again, adding: “We told Mondelez UK to ensure their advertising did not condone or encourage unsafe practices.”
Dairylea owner Mondelez UK said it was “disappointed” by the ruling and that the ad’s purpose was to show parents allowing their children more freedom. The video included two supervising parents in the background.
Mondelez referred to a study showing that a person’s ability to swallow was not affected by their body position,
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