Aldi spirits ad ‘appeals to children’

Supermarket chain Aldi has been reprimanded by the UK’s advertising watchdog for producing a spirits advert that appeals to children.

Kevin the Carrot often features in Aldi’s advertisements

The TV advert, part of the retailer’s Christmas campaign, featured computer-animated mascot Kevin the carrot. The advert begins with the talking carrot saying “I see dead parsnips” – alluding to a famous line in the 1999 horror film The Sixth Sense.

The advert ended with Kevin the carrot being frightened by another character dressed as a ghost with a white blanket over them.

During the advert, spirits from Aldi’s own-label range were featured with prices, including its Glen Marnoch single malt, Oliver Cromwell London Dry gin and Saint Gérmont French vodka.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned the advert in response to a complainant who challenged whether the advert was irresponsible because it was likely to appeal to people under the UK legal drinking age of 18.

In response to the complaint, Aldi stated the carrot was “intended to be humorous” and “not designed to appeal to under 18s”.

The supermarket chain said its target audience for the Christmas advert was adults.

Aldi also said that the majority of its adverts featured references to films that were several decades old and largely adult in nature.

However, the ASA said that the carrot “appeared to be child-like and had a high-pitched voice, similar to that of a young child”.

Aldi also sold Kevin as a soft toy during the Christmas period, which was popular amongst under 18s, particularly young children.

“Although the content of the dialogue and poem, which made use of a pun on ‘spirits’, was not typical content for children, we considered the tone was reminiscent of a children’s story, therefore it was likely to resonate with and strongly appeal to younger children,” the ASA said.

“We therefore considered that Kevin was likely to have strong appeal to audiences under the age of 18.”

It ruled that the advert must not appear again in its current form and told Aldi to ensure its adverts were appropriately targeted in the future and did not appeal to under 18s.

This is not the first Aldi advert to cause controversy. In 2016, the Advertising Standards Board threw out a complaint that an Australian radio advert for Aldi’s whisky brand was “racist” towards Scottish people by implying they “cannot be understood”.