Tuesdata: In which Guzman y Gomez tries to persuade Ad Standards that an ice cream ad talking about ‘your mum’ isn’t aimed at kids

Welcome to Tuesdata.

In today’s members-only edition we look at the first set of rulings for the year by Ad Standards. The brands covered include gas supplier ATCO which was found to have made misleading claims about its environmental friendliness, Honey Birdette, Wicked Campers and Ram Trucks.

And fast food brand Guzman y Gomez tried – and failed – to argue that an ad with the slogan “Soft serve your mum says yes to!” was not aimed at children.

Further down, there’s an update on a particularly bad day on the Unmade Index (for pretty much everyone apart from Pureprofile).

The content of the full post is available only to Unmade’s paying members. That could be you. Not only can you see today’s members-only edition of Tuesdata, but you get access to the full Unmade archive, which goes behind a paywall two months after publishing.

Unmade’s paying members also get a 30% reduction in the ticket price for our conference RE:Made – Retail Media Unmade, which is this Thursday March 2. For the last time, we’ll be sharing your special discount code at the end of this email, beneath the paywall.

The numbers behind the latest Ad Standards rulings

As we reach the last day of February (2023 is one-sixth done already!) it’s a good moment to take our first look of the year at the deliberations of Ad Standards.

Funded via the Australian Association of National Advertisers, Ad Standards is the voluntary body which arbitrates on complaints from the public about advertising on any medium aimed at the Australian public.

So let’s get to the numbers…

So far this year, the ASB has published 25 case determinations.

There have been nine complaints upheld, an unusually high 36% of case investigations.

However, it’s worth bearing in mind that percentage comes off a relatively low number of cases so far. And it is also somewhat distorted by one campaign – for Ram trucks – having three different versions of the same campaign ruled against. We’ll come to that one later.

First, the usual suspects. There have been further rulings against Wicked Campers and lingerie retailer Honey Birdette. These brands control their own medium – in Wicked Campers’ case, signage on the vehicles; in Honey Birdette’s case, storefront imagery. Both brands choose not to be pasrt of the the Ad Standards process, and are legally free to ignore the rulings as the organisation is a voluntary, not statutory body.

For the record, the complaint upheld against Wicked Campers, was as distasteful as ever: a South Australia-registered van with the slogan “Back in my day blowin’ a tranny was car trouble”.

Fot Honey Birdette, the issue was once again one of using sexualised imagery. As the case report described the image: “This store window advertisement features two women in red strappy lingerie standing outside. The first woman is wearing gold nipple pasties and has a fur coat around her back, the second woman is also wearing a red collar.”

Perhaps the most significant upheld case so far this year concerned erroneous claims made by an anergy company.

The complaint took issues with the claims by WA-based gas supplier ATCO.

In a flyer sent to potential customers’ homes, the flyer claimed they could pay “58% less for hot water” and “produce 70% less greenhouse gas”.

ATCO defended the claims, arguing that it was comparing itself to grid-based electricity, and that the flyer had been distributed in error anyway.

However, Ad Standrads ruled that the claims were misleading.

In one of the more proposterous brand defences of the year to date, Guzman y Gomez attempted to claim that it had not broken the rules on advertising snacks to children.

The message featured images of ice creams with the slogan “Soft serve your mum says yes to!”

Guzman y Gomez claimed in its response that people of all ages can have mothers and the ad was not targeting kids:

“The Advertisement is not presented in a way that is principally appealing only to Children for the following reason.

“While the background colour of the Advertisement is hot pink, this is a commonly used colour in advertising and marketing when featuring ice creams and desserts. For example, pink is the principal colour used by Baskin Robbins on their ice cream cups, packaging boxes and spoons, which are all featured in their advertising campaigns.

“As such, Guzman y Gomez confirms that in its view, the Advertisement does not specifically target children by using the colour hot pink, as claimed by the complainant. The text, “Soft serve your Mum says yes to” in the Advertisement is a tongue-in-cheek reference to a person’s own memories of their mum’s rules. Having a “mum” is not attributable exclusively to Children; that is, a person of any age can, and most likely will, have a ‘mum’.”

Ad Standards did not buy the argument, ruling that the ad was in breach of the rules.

And Ram trucks had several versions of its ad featuring its vehicles flying through sand dunes banned on the grounds of depicting environmental damage.

A bad day on The Unmade Index (unless you’re Pureprofile)

It was a brutal day on the Unmade Index of ASX listed media and marketing companies yesterday. While the wider ASX All Ordinaries dropped by 1.24%, sentiment around media stocks was worse, with a 2.52% drop.

Every one of the large media stocks fell.

Seven West Media did worst, with a drop of 3.53%, taking it down to a market capitalisation of $638m. Southern Cross Austereo wasn’t far behind, with a fall of 3.33%. Nine and ARN’s owner HT&E both fell by nearly 3% each.

The only stock to rise yesterday was research house Pureprofile, which jumped by 10% after releasing a strong set of half year results.

Although EBITDA profit fell slightly compared to the same time the previous year, from $2.5m to $2.2m, because of increased headcount, the company reported growth in revenue of 19% to $24.8m.

Investors also took encouragement from Purprofile revealing that its revenue grew in January, by 16%, at a time when media comapnies were reporting a slowdown.

Time to leave you to your Tuesday. We’ll be back with a midweek update tomorrow.

Don’t forget, as a paying member, you can get two tickets to next week’s RE:Made – Retail Media Unmade for 30% off. The coupon code you need is: Unmade_Member

Toodlepip…

Tim Burrowes

Publisher – Unmade

tim@unmade.media