The ASA have BANNED Kevin the Carrot’s festive spirit ad after just one complaint about the content of the ad.
The ruling comes after one complainant challenged Aldi’s ad to see whether it was irresponsible because it was likely to have strong appeal to people under the age of 18.
The ad which opened with “I see dead parsnips”. The voice-over then stated, “Kevin was fee lin g a little bit tense.He thought there were spirits. He had a sixth sense. As it turned out his instincts were right. There were a few spirits that cold Christmas night. Award winning bottles for raising a toast and one frightened carrot had just seen a ghost”.
The advert then finished with Kevin being frightened by another character who had dressed up as a ghost with a white blanket over them.
An Aldi spokesperson said: “We believe the content of this specific advert appealed to adults rather than children. The advert was also subject to broadcast restrictions so that it did not appear adjacent to any programmes aimed at under-18s. Nevertheless we will abide by the Advertising Standards Agency’s ruling on this matter.”
The ASA has stated that the advert must not appear in it’s current form again and that future ads for alcohol must not be likely to appeal strongly to people under 18 years of age.
The ruling only affected one of the Aldi adverts and not the full 12 part adverts.
Do you think the ASA were right to ban the ad? Comment below and let us know or share on social media using the icons below.
If anyone at the ASA really believes that a cartoon Christmas Carrot encourages kids to drink alcohol they must be seriously deluded and need to lay off the booze themselves.