ASA UK Bans Tesco Mobile Adverts Over Offensive Content

The UK Advertising Standards Authority has banned several adverts for Tesco Mobile – most of which were intended to highlight how big mobile operators were hiking their prices again – after 52 people complained that they contained offensive content (i.e. words that alluded to an expletive) and some could also be seen by children.

The banned promotions (displayed during February 2022), which included several national newspaper ads, one paid-for Twitter post and three outdoor posters, all made use of various words like “shiitake“, “pistachio“, and “fettucine” in phrases – often presented in large text – like “What a load of shiitake“, “They’re taking the pistachio” and “For fettuccine’s sake“, among others. We’re trying hard to keep a straight face on this.

In its defence, Tesco Mobile said they “had not used any offensive words or imagery” and “they prepared the ads with consumers in mind who were facing increasing prices due to the cost-of-living crisis, since the ads highlighted that they were not increasing prices, unlike other providers.”

Interestingly, Tesco also said that when they were made aware that one of their publishers was uncomfortable running some of the copy, they had conducted a further internal review of the ads, but again concluded that the ads were not in breach of the Code.

The publisher, JC Decaux, which had been forewarned by the CAP Copy Advice team that the ads “would likely be in breach” of the code, has since “apologised for the unsuitability and offence caused” and pledged not to repeat the incident.

ASA Ruling – REF: G22-1146813 Tesco Mobile Ltd

We concluded that the allusion to the word “s—”, “p—” and “f—” in ads (a), (b), (c), (d), and (f) with a general adult audience were likely to cause serious and widespread offence.

…

We concluded that ads (b), (c) and (f) were likely to be seen by children and were therefore inappropriate for display.

As usual, the ASA pulled the adverts in their current form and told Tesco Mobile to avoid using words or phrases which were likely to cause serious offence by, for example, avoiding references to expletives. We have naturally masked some of the swear words above, but you can easily guess most of it.