Ad watchdog slams catalogue retailer for showing kids playing with carrier bags

No Added Sugar, which sells children’s clothing by mail order, has been told by the advertising watchdog to take more care when depicting children in its catalogues. Complainants to the ASA were concerned that children who saw the images would be encouraged to mimic them.

The retailer argued that its ‘We’re Rubbish’ catalogue theme was designed to take a tongue-in-cheek look at some of the things that people throw away on a daily basis, such as empty plastic carrier bags. It showed pictures of children sitting close to coloured rubbish bags and holding items of rubbish on and near their heads.

No Added Sugar insisted that the content was aimed at adults and not intended to be seen by children. The firm said that their catalogues did not resemble traditional children’s wear catalogues and that their approach was more innovative and fashion led.

However, the ASA refuted this argument on the basis that children would want to look at the catalogue because it featured children their own age. The watchdog also noted that some of the images “showed clearly identifiable supermarket carrier bags, which most households were likely to have and to which children might have access”.

The offending material was deemed to breach advertising codes on social responsibility and safety.

The ASA told No Added Sugar that the images should not appear again in its current form and that the retailer should tale care when depicting children in its catalogue in the future.

According to No Added Sugar, the theme of ‘We’re Rubbish’ was a “tribute to all the paraphernalia that we readily throw away”. The firm did not perceive a problem with the imagery because it said it was stylized and modern.

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