Clearcast forces SodaStream to pull 'denigrating' ad

By Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith, campaignlive.co.uk, Friday, 23 November 2012 09:17AM

SodaStream has been forced to pull the TV ad from its £11m 'SodaStram Effect' global campaign last night, hours before it was due to air, after Clearcast slammed it for its "denigration of the bottled drinks market."

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The ad, which was due to air last night during ITV’s 'I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!', was banned by  Clearcast, the body that advises on and clears TV ads against the TV Advertising Standards Code.

Clearcast banned the ad in the UK, despite the same ad successfully airing in the US, Australia and Sweden.

Clearcast said: "The majority decided that the ad could be seen to tell people not to go to supermarkets and buy soft drinks, instead to help save the environment by buying a SodaStream. We thought it was denigration of the bottled drinks market".

SodaStream’s ad, which was created by Alex Bogusky and Rob Schulman at Common Agency, features people using their SodaStream machines to create carbonated drinks.

Each time they press down on the machine, a batch of unidentified soft-drinks in plastic bottles spontaneously self combust, while the voiceover states, "With SodaStream, you can save 1,000 bottles a year".

SodaStream’s UK managing director Fiona Hope hit back at the ruling, and said: "This decision is absurd. We have neither named nor disparaged any of our competitors in the industry and cannot see how this makes any sense.

"Through the ad, we are simply displaying an alternative way to living more sustainably and illustrating one of our product’s benefits – the reduction of plastic bottle wastage.

"The consumer should be allowed to make their own decisions about how to live their lives and the products to chose.  This decision appears to put the sensitivities of the world’s soft drinks giants ahead of concern for the environment.

"We will continue to fight this decision with Clearcast and will push to reverse this decision."

The ad will still appear online.

This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk