An on-demand TV advertisement of Happy Happy Foods’ soy milk product has been withdrawn after a viewer complained about what was described as suicidal and violent content.
Ad Standards has removed the advertisement of Happy Happy Soy Boy, which features cartoon styled soybeans walking around ‘Happyland’, from BVOD.
The decision was made after a viewer complained that the soybeans were committing suicide in the ad as they “jumped into a blender off a springboard or were shot through the chest”. The complainant added that their son with childhood PTSD was “deeply affected” by it.
In their defence, the brand explained that the animated soybeans are non-living entities that do not represent persons, and that the beans voluntarily become milk by diving into the blender, because that is their purpose as the key ingredient.
“There is no encouragement or condoning of suicide implies in any way by the actions of the soybeans depicted in the advertisement,” the company continued, adding that the ad’s target audience is adults aged 18 to 45.
Following a review, the Ad Standards Community Panel said while the soybeans are not humans, they had been personified with human characteristics including feet, eyes and voices.
The panel considered that the soybeans are seen jumping into a blender as they are “happy to be pureed like a pear” and shot with an arrow. They also noted that the population sign in the advertisement counts down to zero, which is another indication that the soybeans are dying.
These details were considered to depict violence, which is against Section 2 of the AANA Code of Ethics.
The majority of the panel also viewed that the description of the soybeans as being happy to die to be in the milk was a suggestion of suicide and was not appropriate in the promotion of this, or any, product.
