One execution of the poster campaign, created by Quiet Storm, showed an overweight woman pushing a basket trolley with the headline "Smuggler", followed by "She has in excess of 30 bags of Golden Wonder in that trolley. Not as innocent as she looks, eh?".
A second poster with the headline "User" showed a woman on a bicycle with two packets of Golden Wonder in the basket, and said: "This mother of two has a 34.5g a day Gold Wonder habit. Think about it." A third execution headlined "Dealer" depicted the head and shoulders of a man and read: "This shopkeeper sells Golden Wonder to your children in broad daylight. Think about it."
Two complaints were received about the campaign, both from County Down. The complainants said that it was irresponsible to compare buying crisps to a drug deal in a medium where children could see the ads.
The Advertising Standards Authority rejected Golden Wonder's arguments that the ads highlighted the "compulsive taste of the crisps". The crisp maker said that the ad highlighted the fact that Golden Wonder was not as widely available as it once was, and said the campaign was tongue-in-cheek.
However, the ASA argued that ads were likely to be seen and acknowledged by children, and said the link to illegal drugs "trivialised a serious social problem". It has asked the advertiser not to use the same approach in the future.
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