Kellogg was informed by the Advertising Standards Board that after a complaint claiming its Coco Pops TVC was marketing to kids, the board found that despite the fact that the TVC was not directed primarily towards kids, the complaint was upheld as the commercial had been accidentally placed in a program with child themes.

The ASB found that the commercial had breached the RCMI code as the result of four placements in a programme with child themes. This equated to less than 1% of the total media buy for this TVC, and was due to administrative error.

The ASB found that the content of the commercial was primarily directed to a broad audience, and not directed to children under 12.

Despite this content being deemed targeted to adults, Kellogg’s will now modify the TVC to get it back on air as soon as possible as is required by the code.

Rebecca Boustead, Kellogg’s Director of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, said: “A lot of work goes into creating and planning these adverts, and we work hard to ensure that we do not breach any of the codes to which we are signatories.

“This is a very rare breach for us and we’re disappointed that it was the result of placement errors, but we are pleased to have the confirmation from the ASB that in fact the content of the TVC itself was primarily targeted to adults. This is consistent with our objectives when creating the TVC.

“In addition to updating the ad, we’ve taken action to ensure that our processes with media partners and the networks are tightened to minimise the risk of this happening again in the future.”

The current version of the TVC has been intermittently on air from 2012, with the most recent run from January 2016. Since 2012, there had been no other complaints against this TVC.

Kellogg will air a revised version of the TVC in the near future.

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