The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that a magazine advert for Berrimans Pet Food was misleading and told the company the ad must not appear again in its current form.
The advert, seen on 25 January 2017, featured the headline “TOO MUCH PROTEIN IS BAD”.
Online dog food guide, All About Dog Food, challenged whether the ad misleadingly implied that a high protein diet caused health problems in dogs.
The main body of advert text had stated: “Science shows that protein obsession may be one of the main causes for the rise we are seeing in obesity, cancer, diabetes and heart disease. After years of intense research the conclusion was diets high in animal protein have higher rates of chronic diseases (cancer, diabetes, heart disease and many other[sic] including irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel syndrome [sic] - that’s what we know for certain) … It is absolutely clear that an animal protein rich diet is associated with a shortened life span.”
In response to the action brought by All About Dog Food, Berrimans Pet Food Ltd stated that as a responsible pet food supplier they were responsible for providing information to their customers. They said that obesity levels were at 50–58% in all dogs and its impact led to chronic diseases in dogs.
Berrimans stated that they believed the information in the article was not misleading as it had been acquired through gold standard research along with studies where randomised trials had been conducted on rats which specifically compared protein heavy diets to ones without animal protein.
The company added that every large scale scientific study had the same correlations linking animal protein and stated that they offered over 15 bibliographies and references to scientific studies. They said that the conclusions were supported by numerous scientific studies over many years in multiple countries.
The ASA considered that consumers would interpret the claims in the ad to mean that diets that were rich in animal protein had negative health implications for dogs and could lead to chronic illness and a shortened life span.
The Authority stated: “In the context of an ad for Berrimans Pet Food, we considered consumers would understand that the advertiser’s products provided a lower protein alternative.
“We noted that Berrimans Pet Food had referred to scientific studies that compared animal protein diets against non-animal protein diets, which they believed supported the claims regarding the effects and health implications associated with animal protein-heavy diets.
“However, they had not provided us with any substantiation for the claims. In the absence of documentary evidence, we concluded that the claims were misleading.
“The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Berrimans Pet Food Ltd not to repeat the claims made in the ad unless they held documentary evidence to support them.”
The ASA ruling can be found at https://www.asa.org.uk/rulings/berrimans-pet-food-ltd-a17-378383.html
