Fanta Spitting Advert Complaints Upheld

Lately, the advert industry appears to have started saying that bad manners are OK. First, there was the cripplingly bad KFC ’singing with your mouth full’ campaign that attracted a record number of complaints for saying that stuffing your fat cheeks full of Zinger Burger and howling a tune was OK.

And now, a Fanta advert that shows lots of people spitting had received 272 complaints.

In the advert for Fanta Z, a number of couples are shown drinking
Fanta and spitting it out all over the place. And now parents are
concerned that their children have been copying it because they’re
under the impression that spitting is cool.

And now the Advertising Standards Authority have upheld the
complaints, and have stated that the advert can now only be broadcast after 9pm.
"Spitting is widely perceived as anti-social and we can understand why
viewers would not want to see children copying this behaviour," it said.

The advert was for Fanta Z, a sugar-free replacement to Fanta Light.
Because Fanta Light - by their own admission - was pretty disgusting,
the advertising agency decided to show a number of stylised scenarios
of people drinking Fanta Light and then gobbing it out everywhere.

But the ironic message of the advert was perhaps too subtle for
children, and now there’s a crimewave of kids running around spitting
out fizzy drinks all over the place.

So lately, adverts have condoned talking with your mouth full,
spitting and  - in the case of the Crazy Frog advert, which attracted
over 400 complaints - riding around town naked on an invisible
motorbike going "rimbimbim bim bombombom".

This is clearly a trend. What bad behaviour would you like to see
used in adverts in the future? Nose-picking? A Nokia happy-slapping
advert? Leave your suggestions below.

[story by Stuart Heritage]