June 25, 2009

Complaints over two horses depicted having sex in a television advertisement for Moro chocolate bars have been rejected by the New Zealand Advertising Standards Authority.

The authority received complaints from T. Prins and others about the television ad for the Cadbury bar which promoted the product as being "New Zealand's fourth favourite bar".

The advertisement referred to a series of fourth placings. The presenter continued: "In the Melbourne Cup, Wonderfoot came fourth. He won't race again, he has better things to do."

While this is said, the viewer sees that the horse has been put out to stud, and is in the process of mating with a mare.

Prins saw the advertisement screened during an episode of the soap opera, Shortland Street, around 7.20pm.

"I am the parent of an 8-year-old and a 2-year-old and work hard at preserving their innocence. Is this type of advertising appropriate?"

The authority's Complaints Board explored whether the ad was prepared with a due sense of social responsibility to consumers and to society; and whether it was offensive under a rule which states: "Advertisements should not contain anything which in the light of generally prevailing community standards is likely to cause serious or widespread offence taking into account the context, medium, audience and product (including services)."

Counsel for Cadbury Moro and the ad agency, DDB New Zealand, argued that the ad did not breach standards.

"The campaign is deliberately irreverent and light-hearted, and its central message is that the real winners are those who come fourth," it was argued.

"The aspect of the commercial which has been the subject of complaint is the background image of two horses mating.

"The visual image, coupled with the voiceover, conveys the message that the horse which placed fourth in the Melbourne Cup will live out the rest of its days as a stud horse. As is consistent with the rest of the campaign, the humorous implication is that the horse in fact 'won' by coming fourth and that serious competitors who place in the top three miss out."

The horse sequence lasts for 8 seconds of a 60-second commercial, and the "mating horses" are shown on-screen for about three seconds.

"Cadbury takes a responsible attitude to its advertising generally. Our clients took particular care to ensure that the horse scene in the Moro commercial was suggestive, rather than graphic or explicit, when shooting the ad."

They argued that Cadbury sought and obtained a classification of the advertisement through the Commercial Approvals Bureau (CAB) and ensured that the ad complied with the classification it was given at all times.

"There is no evidence that any offence suffered by the complainants in the present case is 'serious', or that the commercial has caused 'widespread' offence.

"The complainants in some cases seem to proceed on the basis that the advertisement should not have been broadcast due to the nature of the programmes in which it appeared, but as noted above the CAB's classification has been respected at all times.

"The scene is suggestive but is certainly not graphic or explicit. Indeed, the voiceover contains no sexual references, and the sequence is unlikely to be regarded as sexual by children.

"Our clients accept that the advertisement is not to all tastes, but the target market for the advertisement (as with the product itself) is young adults who are less likely to take offence at the obviously tongue-in-cheek scenes portrayed in the advertisement."

The Commercial Approvals Bureau, in its submission, said: "The contentious three seconds of the commercial are of the two horses mating.

"The scene is shot from the front and there is nothing graphic in the way that it has been filmed. The shot is also partly obscured by the presenter. That said, anybody who has ever watched a wildlife documentary will have no doubt that the horses are mating.

"When we approved this commercial we expected that some people would find this scene offensive but, on balance, decided that it was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence.

"The humour is admittedly rather juvenile and of dubious taste but the footage is not gratuitous and does not depict anything that is not seen daily on farms up and down the country."

The Complaints Board, in its decision, said it noted that care had been taken to ensure that the commercial did not run during any programme where the primary target market was young children.

"It also took into account that the intended primary target market for the advertisement was males aged 15 to 24, with the secondary markets being females aged 15 to 45 and males aged 25 to 45."

It said it took into account that the creative concept in the advertisement was to convey in a light-hearted and irreverent way the message that the real winners were those who come fourth.

"This concept had been demonstrated in a number of scenarios, including a three-second-long, partially obscured incident where the horse who came fourth in the Melbourne Cup was fulfilling his duties as a sire at stud."

It noted that the mating had been viewed from the front, and said it could not be called explicit. It also noted that there was no reference to the activity shown, in the voice-over of the advertisement.

"The board unanimously agreed that the incident did not depict anything that was not seen on a daily basis on farms throughout the country."

It was unanimous in its view that the advertisement had been prepared and played with a due sense of social responsibility. It further ruled that the content did not reach the threshold to cause serious or widespread offence.

The complaint was therefore not upheld.