Advertising Accuracy.. or Lack of..
Now I don’t mind a bit of artistic license when it comes to advertising, but I have my limits. Recently more TV adverts have glaringly inaccurate parts to them and are still broadcast as if they are truths. The big offenders to get my goat so far this year are the PC World sale advert and the Change4Life campaign about healthy eating.
Don’t get me wrong, I think raising awareness about eating properly, exercise etc is needed. Apparently 10% of parents thought jaffa cakes counted towards your daily recommended amount of fruit, how scary is that! Lack of knowledge, apathy, social groups and non stop junk food advertising probably contributed to this sorry state of affairs, but thats for another time. What annoys me in this advert is the fact they show humans killing a dinosaur! Two species separated by over 60 million years!
Somehow this managed to go unnoticed and has been airing regularly since the beginning of the year. Apparently ASA have no issue reenforcing a popular misconception
If that isn’t bad enough the current PC World sale advertising fails at basic math; printer for half price, really? I could of sworn half of 129.98 was 64.99, however the advert tells me it’s 59.99. The wording says half price, not less than half price. Again, shouldn’t ASA be pointing these things out and getting them corrected?
You might say that it’s only an advert, but how many people are watching that advert? What if your child / nephew / niece etc gave that answer on a math test? Would you say then it doesn’t matter then?
In the current social climate most children spend almost as much time in front of the tv as they spend at school, so surely the prime time viewing should at least be accurate?
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