"Dad does night feeds" (SMA Progress)

109 complaints

ASA verdict - Not upheld

What the ASA said:

This TV ad for SMA Progress follow-on milk featured a voice over from a man promising not to pretend to be asleep when his young baby wakes up and promising to do his share of night feeding. A scene from the ad shows a dad falling asleep next to a boiling kettle and a tin of SMA Progress in the middle of the night. On-screen text stated “Progress is a follow-on formula. Not intended to replace breastfeeding”. Viewers challenged whether the ad was misleading and harmful because it did not make sufficiently clear that it was advertising follow-on formula for babies over six months old and because it might discourage mothers from breastfeeding.

Although we noted there were some scenes or images in the ad which could be interpreted as references to younger babies, for example the night-feeding references, we considered that the ad as a whole, and particularly the on-screen text and the pack shots, made sufficiently clear that the ad promoted a follow-on formula for babies over six months. We felt the ad was unlikely to discourage breast feeding or to mislead or cause harm.