Heinz baby nutrition ad banned by ASA due to misleading claims

January 13, 2010 by Shawn Douglas  
Filed under: News, Product News

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A Heinz advertisement for baby formula was officially banned by the ASA due to misleading claims about improving child health.

The Advertising Standards Authority has finally taken action regarding a Heinz Nurture baby formula advertisement, choosing to ban it after 18 months of deliberation.

The commercial, which first ran in July 2008, showed an adult flipping through a baby nutrition book, watching a baby develop into a young child that begins to walk towards a woman.

“As it grows, a baby needs a special combination of nutrients to sustain the incredible growth in its brain, body and immune system,” a voiceover stated during the commercial.

“To provide for those three essential aspects of growth, Heinz created new Nurture, an advanced complete follow-on formula to help nourish, protect and develop your baby.”

After receiving three complaints that the advertisement made misleading claims, the advertising watchdog was forced to begin the “complex” process of investigation concerning the advertisement’s claims.

An ASA spokesperson told advertising news provider Campaign: “The adjudication involving Heinz took 18 months because of the complexity of the issues being investigated. There was some significant EC legislation to examine and a swathe of evidence and robust counter argument put forward by the advertiser in its defense of its ad that we are duty bound to assess. We have to give an advertiser every opportunity to defend itself.”

Heinz defended its advertisement during the investigation process, providing evidence to support the advertisement’s claims. Heinz said the “nourish” aspect referred to the formula’s milk protein and calcium, the “protect” referred to the iron and nucleotides that aid immune system health, and “develop” referred to the omega-3 and -6 which aids brain development.

However, the ASA determined that “the evidence submitted was not sufficiently robust to support the product’s claims in relation to children’s immunity and development.”

“We concluded, therefore, that the claim was unsubstantiated and the ad was unacceptable,” a spokesperson for the ASA told the Guardian.

You can watch the banned video on the Guardian Web site.

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