Cow & Gate advert banned for iron claims

[MumOfEmily]

Thought you might be interested to hear that an advert for Cow & Gate Complete Care Growing Up Milk has just been banned for misleading viewers about how much iron toddlers need to eat to prevent development problems.

You know the one with the 12L jug of cows milk? Even though cows milk is not a good source of iron and your toddler would hopefully be getting all the iron they need from other good sources of iron...

I'm very pleased about this as that ad really annoyed me! And I have a friend who gave up bf at 6 months partly because she was worried her ds wouldn't get enough iron unless he had follow-on milk...

Fantastic - apart from being the worst and creepiest advert ever (it will never win any awards). The toddler milk follow on is a load of bull and makes me want to scream everytime I see it. It makes me feel sorry for those that sucked into buying this expensive muck.

And I agree with BooBoo.

Thank efness for that. Shame as bertiebotts and tellnoone point out it's been on so long the damage is probabl done.

Does anyone know how advertising standards work...do they only investigate if there are complaints? Or do they constantly monitor?

Thanks stewiegriffinsmom.

Very pleased to hear this. That baby's laugh really grated on me. And as for the massive bottle of milk....words fail me.

DH will be delighted. I annoyed him to death by ranting at that advert every time it was on

Will tell him when he gets back from wine shopping run

At last!!! I bet they don't mention this on any of the commercial news channels or papers.

Good. That advert was utter crap, and it made me sad at the time that people who did not see through it were basically being completely misled

This is probably a stupid suggestion, but I wonder if enough people contacted Cow and Gate whether they'd be pressured into issuing a retraction in the national press?

When pigs fly perhaps... :(

Are they banning the website as well? The one which tells you that unless your toddler is munching on steak and broccoli 24/7 they aren't getting enough iron and are in desperate need of special iron milk.

Hurrah! The DC were going nuts because everytime it came on I shouted "It's a LIE!!!!!!!! A total LIE I tell you!"

They'll be grateful for the peace.

I've just seen it on my AOL homepage. Hope it crops up in other media.

Just sent this to Cow and Gate. I know it's not very good but I fancied a rant anyway. HERE'S the link if anyone else fancies a rant. The massive 'IRON CALCULATOR!' on the homepage got me all riled up

Dear sir / ma'am,
Now the ASA have banned your advert re: toddler iron intake, will you be publishing a clear and unequivocal apology on this website for:

1. misleading the public as to the recommended level of iron intake for toddlers;
2. failing to state clearly that cows milk is not a good source of iron for toddlers (and thus entirely useless in a 'comparison');
3. failing to explicitly differentiate between haem and non-haem iron re: their bioavailability and the relevance of absorption to a child's haemoglobin level;
4. failing to mention that a breastmilk and a varied diet remains the healthiest feeding option for toddlers and children up to the age of 2 years;
5. failing to support your claims with relevant empirical evidence directly linking iron absorption (not just intake) to health outcomes and internationally-recognised recommendations for infant feeding.

As a responsible company, I trust that your priority will be to act in the public health interests of the nation's toddlers and look forward to reading your retraction. Yours etc. Dr DH Frozen North RCGP and Frozen North MA PhD(cand)

Hijack but still relevant to this topic:

FrozenNorth please put TPoB on your students' reading list.

great news, I can't believe they got away with showing it for so long. Like others though I do worry how much damage has already been done.

What a good idea to send a letter - I will send one along similar lines too. Thanks FrozenNorth! It's true that a lot of damage must already have been done and I bet that not many people will ever get to hear that the ad was withdrawn. I'm pleased to hear that so many of us are too cynical about formula companies well educated with regard to infant nutrition to have ever believed this ad anyway! :)

Thank god.

Sorry - my strike out didn't seem to work for some reason. You can tell I'm new to this site!

Hurrah! I also had fears for my telly - my DH gets mad at it as well as me (he's VVV firmly against that kind of scaremongering and profitering).

No retraction will be made so let's blog/twitter/facebook it everywhere and tell everyone possible to try to reverse some of the damage.

Wow, what an interesting post. I read the article on the ban yesterday and thought, surely no one would care? Do people really believe these stuff?

The last time I begged my parents to buy me pantene shampoo so I could get beautiful shiny hair like the pantene advert, I was 9 years old (Nah, I'm not going to say how long ago that was). Nope, didn't get my miracle beautiful locks even at 9.

Please people, do not trust any adverts, baby ones or not.