Ad description
A paid-for YouTube ad for air up, a water bottle company, seen in February and March 2024, showed a man, from behind, urinating into a lake in a park, while a woman walked past carrying a child and a man shovelled snow. A voice-over stated, “Air up takes your water intake to new levels, by flavouring water through scent. We solved daily hydration for this guy, the side effects, less sugary drinks, a healthier lifestyle, and well, this, we couldn’t solve this, but he’ll take care of that […] You’ll be drinking a whole lot more water.”
Issue
The complainants, who believed the ad condoned anti-social and potentially unlawful behaviour, challenged whether it was irresponsible.
Response
Air up GmbH t/a air up stated that as a company they promoted decency and morality and did not take their social responsibility obligations lightly. They did not believe the ad condoned or encouraged anti-social behaviour, it merely represented a human biological function in a humorous and non-offensive way.
They said the ad presented a fictional scenario in a humorous way and that an audience would be able to distinguish fiction from reality. The ad attempted to convey that hydration was important, even if that resulted in sometimes needing to empty one’s bladder when it was not the right time and place. The scenario presented was not intended to shock the audience; it was merely portraying a situation that most people would be familiar with. They believed the other characters featured in the ad demonstrated that they found the behaviour unacceptable.They had not received any direct complaints about the ad and expressed caution about taking the impressions or feelings of a small group of complainants as being representative of the whole population.They said the ad was no longer being broadcast.
Google Ireland Ltd, the service providing the ad platform, confirmed that the ad had been served through Google Ads, a self-administered system. They said that under the terms agreed to by advertisers, it was the advertiser’s responsibility to abide by applicable laws and regulations, including the CAP Code.
Assessment
Upheld
The CAP Code required that marketing communications must contain nothing that was likely to condone or encourage anti-social behaviour and to ensure advertising was prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society.
The ASA acknowledged air up’s comments that the ad was intended to highlight the consequences of drinking more water in a humorous and fictitious way. However, the scenario took place in a real-world setting and depicted a male prominently and publicly urinating in a park, which we considered people would view as being anti-social behaviour, as well as potentially unlawful in the UK.
Furthermore, although not explicitly depicted in the ad, because the protagonist was standing in the open whilst urinating, it was implied that his genitalia would have been exposed and potentially visible to others in the park. Although the other characters shown in the ad, including a mother carrying a crying child, seemed displeased at the sight of the man urinating, he appeared comfortable with his actions, made no attempt to hide what he was doing or find a more discrete location, and expressed a sigh of relief whilst urinating. The ad also focused on the man’s urine stream, which was explicitly visible and shown from different angles.We therefore considered that by trivialising the act of public urination, the ad condoned anti-social behaviour. On that basis, we concluded it was irresponsible and breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.3 (Responsible advertising) and 4.4 (Harm and offence).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Air up GmbH t/a air up to ensure their ads were prepared responsibly and did not condone anti-social behaviour in the future.
