Morrisons ad banned after pester power complaints

By Matthew Chapman, campaignlive.co.uk, Wednesday, 26 October 2011 08:51AM

Morrisons has been slammed by the advertising watchdog for encouraging children to ask their parents to visit the supermarket in order to win tickets to Disneyland Paris.

Morrisons: Disneyland Paris offer ad banned by the ASA

The television campaign, created by DLKW Lowe, featured unhappy children cheering up at the prospect of visiting Morrisons, but drew complaints from three viewers who believed it was specifically targeted at children.

The creative showed a child's face being illuminated when opening a pack of Walt Disney cards, which was accompanied by a voiceover stating: "Find a gold card and you could even win one of a thousand stays at Disneyland Paris".

Morrisons defended itself by claiming the July ad campaign was not irresponsibly targeting children, because it appeared between programmes intended for adults.

However, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) noted the ad appeared on several children's television channels.

In addition, the watchdog ruled the creative undeniably encouraged children to get their parents to take them to Morrisons, because the final scene featured a child waking an adult early in the morning to go to the supermarket chain.

Morrisons has been informed it can no longer run the campaign because it breached ASA regulations concerning responsible advertising and children. 

Follow Matthew Chapman on Twitter @mattchapmanuk

This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk