Monday, October 03, 2005

Warning to Dairy Producers to Stop Misleading Public on Milk

The UK Advertising Standards Authority uphold Vegan Society Complaint about Nestle Claims That Cow's Milk is an essential Part of The Human Diet.

London Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston said "Manufacturers and agencies that promote cow's milk products will have to be far more careful in the future. Cow's milk is a good source of calcium for a baby cow - helping it grow to the size of a small shed in a few weeks. Human nutritional needs are more complex - we need magnesium, vitamins K & D to utilise calcium and we certainly don't need all that saturated animal fat that comes free with milk."

More fruit and vegetables are needed in people's diets - especially green leafy veg rich in essential fats, vitamins, minerals, antioxidents and phytonutrients.

There have been a lot of misleading claims about milk recently - the Nestle advert is just one amongst many. Their peers should watch their step from now on.


Complaint:

The Vegan Society and a member of the public objected to an advertorial on the AOL website. The article was aimed at women and entitled "Mastering Your Metabolism Part 3: Eat well, feel great." One paragraph was headed "Dairy Products" and stated "Essential for healthy bones ...". The complainants objected that the ad was misleading because it was not necessary to eat dairy products to obtain healthy bones.

Codes Section: 3.1, 6.1, 7.1 (Ed 11)

Adjudication:

Complaints upheld
Nestlé UK said they recognised that there were other sources of calcium and they had not intended to suggest that dairy products were the only source of calcium.

The ASA considered that the use of the word "essential" implied dairy products were the only source of calcium. Because that was not correct, they concluded that the advertorial was likely to mislead and advised Nestlé to amend the claim and to seek assistance from the CAP Copy Advice team before using a similar campaign in future.

The advertorial breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 6.1 (Honesty) and 7.1 (Truthfulness).

Full Adjudication

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love your Blog. Great to hear that Nestle will have to stop publishing false claims about dairy products. Regards Jackie (South Africa)

Liangjiasun said...

People do anything to boost up their sales, including compromising their ethic and integrity.

Great article. I am a vegetarian too, and I have written an article in my blogger regarding cruelty of animal factory.

Regards Waynemethod

Anonymous said...

Cows milk is a big issue - Penny Crowther Nutritionist

Allie B said...

They now say 24 oz a milk a day helps you lose weight. I say W.A.B.O.B.S.!!

All that saturated fat and artificial hormones actually being healthy!!??

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