Red Tractor ‘pork not porkies’ ads banned
Food branding is highly complex and full of pitfalls as this article explains. Stories like this continue to give an ill informed public, the vast majority who know little or nothing about farming the impression that it is a cruel and mercenary industry. I know I often bang on about this issue, but until both the general public generally and those with key development roles in local authorities more specifically, make an effort to fully understand the key principles underpinning farming these stories will continue to provoke a bad and unbalanced view of the nature of the industry. That is not to say I disagree fully with the judgment of the ASA, just that in this case as in so many others which run down widespread farming practices, there are two sides to such stories. The article tells us
Three ads trumpeting the high welfare standards of pork sold with the Red Tractor quality mark have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which found the claims could mislead consumers into thinking pig welfare in Britain was better than it is.
“This is a victory for consumers, who deserve to be able to choose higher welfare meat without being misled,” said Joyce D’Silva from campaign group Compassion in World Farming (CIWF), which made the complaint.
“Claims of high welfare are clearly a lucrative marketing tool but in this case they were overblown and misleading to the consumer.
“The ‘pork not porkies’ claim on the advert makes this a particularly embarrassing own-goal for Red Tractor pork.
“This is also a victory for those pig farmers in the UK who adhere to higher welfare standards like the Soil Association’s organic standard or the RSPCA’s Freedom Food.”
Most British farms are members of the Red Tractor scheme, a label of the Assured Food Standards scheme, accounting for 40% of pork sold on UK shelves.
The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board told ASA the three ads it commissioned were intended to compare the welfare standards of Britain and pork imported from many EU countries, where sow stalls are still in use despite an imminent EU ban and castration is still common practice.
The ASA said that this comparison was unclear and that consumers could interpret the ads as championing the general level of pig welfare in the UK.