A 30-second television ad, which breaks today, features a form of quirky line drawing and created by HHCL United and Passion Pictures. It aims to raise awareness of the recommended daily salt intake of 6g a day and urge consumers to check labels.
The four ready meals argue, show off and compare their individual salt levels as they try to attract the attention of customers.
The ad follows on from the FSA's "Sid the slug" campaign, also created by HHCL United, which came under fire from salt makers, which argued that the ads implied that salt kills humans as well as slugs. A complaint from the industry was not upheld by the ASA.
As well as the television ad, the campaign comprises women's weekly press and 48- and six-sheet poster ads along with PR. In one poster ad, a spaghetti bolognaise says to a fisherman's pie "I've only got the smallest bit of salt", to which the pie retorts "But the biggest backside".
A high intake of salt is said to increase the risk of developing high blood pressure, which contributes to more than 170,000 deaths a year and costs the NHS £840m annually in prescriptions.
According to a survey by RSGB Omnibus, a division of TNS, two out of three people do not know how much salt they are supposed to eat a day and three quarters of our daily salt intake is said to come from processed foods.
Men are said to eat an average of 11g of salt a day and women an average of 8g a day.
The government has been working to raise awareness of the risks of eating too much salt since 2003 and has succeeded in encouraging 22m people to cut down -- an increase of nearly 6m since September 2004.
Research published last month by Mintel showed that people are turning to black pepper, herbs and spices, instead of salt to add flavour to their food. Retail sales of salt have gone down by £3m since 2003.
Neil Martinson, FSA director of communications, said: "This is a public health campaign that is already making a real difference. Raising people's awareness has shifted into behaviour change and this is driving consumer demand in stores. Sid the slug may be dead but he did his job and household salt sales are down."
Industry organisations are supporting the FSA in getting its campaign message across. Heinz is urging consumers to check the label with the line "Check out my salt levels!" on the front of tins for key brands.
Tesco is showing the FSA ad on Tesco TV, Sainsbury's will be distributing the agency's "salt-o'meters" and leaflets to its local food advisers, and Asda is using agency messages on its shelf barkers.
The FSA's media planning agency is ZenithOptimedia, with media buying by Carat and through the COI.
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