by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Sorry, mind running this by me again...
A Sodastream advert which pointed out the waste caused by disposable plastic bottles gets banned in UK (by Clearcast).
"It's absurd," CEO Daniel Birnbaum of Sodastream said. "To be banned in the 21st century with advertising that actually tells an environmental story. I thought the Berlin Wall went down in '89. Whatever happened to freedom of speech? I'm shocked that we got banned in a modern democratic society."
Unfortunately, Mr. Birnbaum's assessment seems to be very correct. The powers that be, being in the pockets of various industries, including that of the plastic bottle one and the beverage companies, such as Coca Cola, Pepsi, and the bottled water industry.
The above ad has been yanked from UK airwaves by Clearcast, the approval body for UK broadcast TV advertising. It has already debuted in the United States, Sweden and Australia, according to Sodastream. Clearcast pulled approval for the ad just prior to its November 22 UK debut during “I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.”
According to Sodastream, Clearcast wrote the following with regards to its decision: “The majority decided that the ad could be seen to tell people not to go to supermarkets and buy soft drinks, instead help to save the environment by buying a SodaStream. We thought it was denigration of the bottled drinks market.”
In fact, there is not much change in the statement to the original letter by Clearcast which is: “SodaStream submitted a finished filmed ad to us for approval on Tuesday 20th November without a pre-production script. On Thursday 22nd November we had been able to review it against the BCAP code and concluded we were unable to approve it. In our view, its visual treatment denigrated other soft drinks which put it in breach of the BCAP code (Rule 3.42).”
Birnbaum further suggested that the environmental and health harm that big soda has caused makes it worthy of its own advertising ban, comparing it to the cigarette industry.
It would appear that it is not liked – or should we say illegal, according to Clearcast – to actually tell people not to buy drinks in cans or plastic bottles. Will we be getting the same attitude soon as regards to reusable water bottles vs. bottled water in (plastic) bottles? It would not surprise me.
This, I have to say, is absolutely ludicrous and the government and its agencies should rater promote the use of refillable bottles and tap water and the use of anything but bottled drinks but it would appear that it is the piper who pays who dictates the tune.
© 2012
