Ad sparks complaints of animal abuse by those with nothing better to do

96 people with nothing better to do have complained to the ASA about Kellogg's Crunchy Nut TV commercial airing in the UK. See the ad below:

Kellogg's Crunchy Nut - Dog Jockey (2006) 0:30 (UK)

The spot, created by JWT London, uses CGI to show a man riding a dog through the streets to get home to his bowl of cereal. The complainees say the ad portrayed cruelty to animals and could give the impression that it is OK to ride large dogs around.

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA), the industry watchdog, did not agree and the complaints were not upheld.

The ASA considered the surreal nature of the ad was established from the outset and continued throughout the ad and that the computer-generated appearance of the scene in which the man was shown riding the dog would be apparent to most viewers and said the ad was unlikely to be seen by most viewers as a gratuitous or realistic portrayal of cruel treatment of an animal that the ad did not encourage or condone such cruelty and that, as a result, it would not cause serious or widespread offence.

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purplesimon's picture

If I recall, it actually says on the ad's subtitles that the advert shouldn't be taken seriously or that riding dogs in this way was bad. Something like that.

My personal opinion is that this isn't the strongest ad for the Crunchy Nut Cornflakes and as such that would be a better basis for complaint!

At least the ASA saw sense and didn't agree with the 96 people with nothing better to do.

silver3's picture

The friggin dog pours the milk.

What did Tipper Gore do a Madonna and move the UK?