One-stop, one ruling

The year 2005 was the ASA’s first full year as the one-stop shop for complaints about advertising. Before 1 November 2004, we had only looked after non-broadcast advertising while Ofcom addressed TV and radio. We believe that the benefits of the change have become clear, with a single and consistent approach for the numerous campaigns that span broadcast, cinema and print media. Just one example is Lucozade Hydro Active, whose campaign appeared both on television and on posters. In the TV commercial, we see a human figure formed of water, running, cartwheeling and doing backflips in a water-drenched environment. The voiceover tells us that the product is better for hydration than water alone, and the commercial closes with the strapline: “The fitness water”. This is also the claim in a poster execution, mirroring the TV ad, under the headline “water designed for exercise”. We received a complaint from a competitor of Lucozade, claiming that using the word “water” implied an unprocessed drink with zero calories. The advertisers replied that ‘fitness water’ was always seen in the context of the Lucozade Hydro Active Sport brand name, to convey a new type of product. They added that it was low in calories (10 per 100 ml), and that it fell into the familiar category of flavoured waters. They added that over a year of marketing the brand, they had not received any complaints from people expecting pure natural water. We upheld the complaint that viewers could get the impression that, like water, this product would contain no calories or additives. With our ‘one-stop’ brief, this ruling stretches consistently across all media, from TV and cinema to press ads, posters, DM and paid for online ads.