P&G ad starring Christina Hendricks banned for misleading consumers
A P&G advert for hair care brand Clairol Nice 'n Easy has been banned after it was found to misleadingly exaggerate the capability of the product.
The advert showed actress Christina Hendricks with red hair before being shown again with blonde hair after apparently using the hair dye.
Two viewers complained to the Advertising Standards Authority and said the colour change depicted could not have been achieved using the product alone.
P&G said the TV ad was first broadcast in April 2015, before which the colour transformation was kept secret. Prior to that, the first phase of the TV campaign had shown Hendricks with red hair only. For the ‘blonde’ ad, P&G first coloured her hair using shade 8G in October 2014 and shot the part of the ad that showed her with blonde hair a few days later. Christina Hendricks’ hair was then dyed using the red shade on the following day after filming, with the part of the TV ad that showed her with red hair being shot the day after that.
The FMCG giant said it had to shoot the ads that way around due to hair health and the actress' availability.
However the ASA said it noted from P&G's statement that the colour effects shown had been achieved firstly by colouring the model’s hair to blonde after it had not been coloured for around eight weeks, and then by dying her hair from blonde to a vibrant red, whereas the impression given by the ad was that the effect had been produced when changing from the red shade to the blonde.
The watchdog said that because" the visual claim had not been substantiated", and given that the sequence in which the model’s hair was coloured leading up to the TV shoots did not match the depiction in the ad, the ASA concluded that it was misleading.