Brands whose straplines have been banned: Sofa King, Cash Lady and more
With Red Bull’s strapline which suggested ‘Red Bull Gives You Wings’ being banned in the UK for being misleading, we take a look at five brands who have also fallen foul of a bad strapline.
From being misleading to sounding like a swear word, the below straplines have all been banned.
Sofa King
Furniture shop Sofa King also saw its slogan banned: for suggesting that its prices were ‘Sofa King Low’
Sofa King said it had been used as the company strap line since it began trading nine years previously, and that it simply used its company name to refer to pricing and that the words had not been changed or run together or punctuation used in a way that was intended to cause offence.
The ASA ruled that the words could be interpreted as saying ‘so fucking low’, and banned the ad.
Leolites
E-cigarette brand Leolites saw its strapline ‘love your lungs’ banned, for suggesting the product led to health benefits.
An ASA spokesman said: “Within the context of the ad, we considered that consumers, particularly those who were existing smokers, were likely to interpret the claim ‘Love Your Lungs’ as meaning that LeoLites e-cigarettes contained properties that were not harmful to their lungs or that they would experience an improvement in the health of their lungs if they used LeoLites products.”
The slogan was therefore found to be misleading.
Icecreamists
Icecreamists, a company that described itself as a “subversive ice-cream brand" was nearly sued by the Sex Pistols for its slogan: “God Save The Cream”.
A play on Pistols song “God Save The Queen”, the tagline was accompanied by a version of the band's famous single sleeve featuring the Queen on a black and pink union flag background.
"We are a bit dumbfounded that a group that made its reputation for being banned is trying to ban one of our ice creams and claim copyright over the national anthem and the Queen," said Matt O'Connor, founder of the Icecreamists at the time.
Lucozade
A Lucozade strapline that suggested that Lucozade Sport "hydrates and fuels you better than water" was banned by the ASA.
The multi-million pound ad campaign featured football’s Gareth Bale and rugby player Chris Robshaw.
Complainants, including the Natural Hydration Council, argued that the claim "hydrates and fuels you better than water" was a breach of the UK advertising code.
Cash Lady
Kerry Katona starred in an ad for payday loan company Cash Lady, discussing her own cashflow issue. However, the ad was then banned by the ASA after the strapline for the company “Fast cash for fast lives” was deemed irresponsible.
The ASA said the strapline, and the use of Kerry Katona as the star of the ad, could make people think that payday loans would help fund a high-flying lifestyle, such as Katona used to have before she went bankrupt.
