You may have seen a TV advert recently for Cow & Gate baby formula. It includes a giant beaker of milk being put down in front of a baby (right).
Cow & Gate has been in trouble previously for misleading claims, but now it is the non-sequitur which really offends.
Did you know your child would have to drink a whole bath tub full of cow's milk to get as much iron as there is in one serving of Cow & Gate baby formula?
Well did you?
Whether a parent did or not (and there is no reason they should) it's likely they don't simply keep forcefeeding their child cow's milk until they've hit all of the recommended daily amounts.
For all I know, I'd probably have to eat a whole water buffalo to get as much calcium and vitamin C as I'd get from a Berocca but that doesn't make me think "hmmm, I don't want to eat a water buffalo, so I'd better buy me some Berocca". Because there are more relevant comparables.
I may have to eat 300 Christmas party hats to get as much fibre as I'd get from one Shredded Wheat, but again these aren't my only choices.
You'd hope consumers would be impervious to this kind of nonsense advertising but it seems to be the direction advertising is going.
For example: "You wouldn't clean your teeth without a brush, so why treat your skin any differently?" asks and advert which is currently trying to convince us that mankind has been remiss for not scouring our skin all these years with the kind of self-foaming brush contraption we're more familiar with as a dispenser of shoe polish.
Consumers may notice however, that teeth and skin are not identical.
I wouldn't clean my paintbrushes without white spirit but I would heartily recommend against using it to clean your salad leaves before sitting down for lunch.
And then there's the advert for Susan Boyle's album.
Here's the problem: young children, we are told, want some crazy stuff for Christmas like a whale. But it's really hard to buy whales down the shops (damn you Greenpeace!). How awful then to let somebody you love down by not buying them what they really want for Christmas. But fear not, you can buy Subo's album.
Huh?!
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