Animal-Welfare Ads Banned After Misleading Consumers

Advertising Standards Authority in the United Kingdom banned three advertisements that claimed that the pigs on farms had much higher standards of living than in reality. The ads in question touted free-range pigs, and were intended to show how the UK, unlike most of the European Union, does not use sow gestation crates. Campaign group Compassion in World Farming submitted the claim against the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board and the ASA agreed that the ads were misleading. In the ASA’s decision against the ads, the organization stated, “We considered that the claim implied that there were no concerns about the welfare of pigs in the UK, whereas some areas were unlikely to be regarded as ‘high’ welfare.”