ASA Bans Vegan Dairy is Scary Cinema Advert

Charity outraged as ASA ignores their own experts

A powerful cinema advert created by the UK’s leading vegan charity, Viva!, has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) following a small number of complaints – despite their own investigations team recommending that there was no case to answer.

The ASA ruled that the Dairy is Scary advert was “irresponsible”, likely to cause “unjustified distress” and caused “serious and widespread offence”. In reaching this decision, the ASA also ignored the Cinema Advertising Association (CAA), who had carefully vetted the advert before screening and found it suitable for showing to an audience aged 15 and over.

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The ASA’s own draft recommendation concluded that the advert did not breach any rules and that its content was entirely appropriate for a 15+ audience. Inexplicably, the ASA Council – the body that makes final decisions – ignored their own experts, disregarded the CAA’s professional approval, and banned the advert outright.

Viva!’s founder and director, Juliet Gellatley, said: “We strongly reject the ASA’s decision. It is an entirely subjective judgement and ignores both its own investigators and the experts in cinema advertising – the CAA, who ruled that the ad is suitable for a 15+ audience.”

The ASA received just 25 complaints, including at least one from the dairy industry despite the advert being seen by more than 3.5 million people – a million in cinemas and millions more on social media. The complaints equate to about 0.0025 per cent of the total cinema viewers and the ASA will not reveal how many are from dairy affiliated individuals and organisations.

Crucially, the charity worked with the CAA – the UK’s regulatory body for cinema advertising – who cleared the ad for screening before films rated 15 and over and confirmed it was suitable for its intended audience. The ad was distributed by Pearl & Dean and shown primarily before horror, thriller and sci-fi films. These films frequently feature scenes of violence and psychologically distress. There is no violence and no gore in Viva!’s ad.

The ad features an almost pantomime bogeyman taking a new-born baby so he can have the mother’s milk (a metaphor for what happens routinely to cows in the dairy industry). A claim that the ad might cause distress to people who have lost children was dismissed by Viva!. Ms Gellatley added:

“The charity understand that this is a deeply sensitive topic and care had been taken to ensure the scene was obviously symbolic; a fantasy rather than literal. The aim was to shine a light on animal suffering in a way that connects emotionally – not to trivialise human grief. Viva! believes that the ASA’s decision raises serious concerns about its independence and objectivity.”

The Dairy is Scary advert highlights a standard dairy industry practice of routinely removing calves from their mothers shortly after birth. This practice is well-documented and confirmed by Defra and the UK’s Farm Animal Welfare Committee. Rather than using graphic footage, the advert relies on metaphor, stylised imagery and a symbolic ‘bogeyman’ character to shine a light on this hidden cruelty, of which many people are simply unaware. A 2023 OnePoll survey commissioned by Viva! found that 59 per cent of respondents were unaware of this practice and didn’t even know that cows must give birth to produce milk.

Ms Gellatley concluded: “This ruling is nothing short of censorship. It’s based entirely on subjective opinion, not facts nor evidence. Meanwhile, adverts from the meat and dairy industries continue to present staggeringly false portrayals of idyllic farms – and the ASA does nothing. Their priorities are clear.”

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