ASA Bans Tesco Sausage Ad for Misleading Claims
The Advertising Standards Authority has banned a Tesco ad for being misleading - it is no longer allowed to be broadcast.
The controversy is centred on the Tesco Butchers Choice sausages - the related ad showed pigs roaming in a field, in a hay barn with an open door and walking down a country lane.
Thus the ad was ruled as making misleading claims about how the pigs used in the sausages are reared, since viewers could easily interpret the images to mean that the pig's movement was unrestricted and they had access to outdoor fields, which is not the case.
Four complaints have been received by people who claimed the meat used in the Tesco sausages came from pigs reared indoors.
Tesco has responded by saying that the ad showed both indoor and outdoor pigs and that the meat used for the sausage range came from pigs that were born outdoors and "finished" indoors. The supermarket giant also added that the farm shown in the ad was an actual supplier.
This latest case is similar to a ban made against a Waitrose ad in October last year which falsely implied that their pigs spent most of their lives outdoors.