Ad Standards finds Mood Tea ads in breach of health and safety rule
This article and the videos in this article discuss mental health issues. If you or someone you care about needs support, please contact Lifeline 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636. In an emergency, call 000.
Ad Standards has found that Mood Tea’s campaign on mental health awareness has breached Section 2.6 of the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) Code of Ethics (the Code), which states that advertising or marketing communications shall not depict material contrary to prevailing community standards on health and safety.
There were also complaints that it breached section 2.1 for its depiction of gender stereotypes, which Ad Standards found not to be true.
The campaign, which was created by The Monkeys, part of Accenture Interactive, was launched for Mood Tea in August. The profits of Mood Tea go towards youth prevention charities.
One of the spots found in breach can be seen below, with two men having a conversation over some tea.
Another of the spots, which depicts two women in regency style clothing discussing mental health issues, was found not to be in breach of the code.
Two more spots in the campaign were 15-second cuts of the above spots.
One of the complaints to Ad Standards read: “The ad should not talk about suicide, especially in a kids voice, and not provide any clear info on where people can get help. This ad can easily trigger suicidal people to kill themselves.”
The complaint continued: “It makes fun of people with these types of mental problems and having faced bullying. It is also sexist and seems to rather depict women as ditsy debutants who can’t help themselves and men as repressed, masculine warriors that are forced to keep their emotions bottled up. It plays to stereotypes and the micro sized text at the end stating to actual message of raising funds to support those affected by bullying or anxiety is lost in the negativity conjured by the advertising imagery.
“The ad is irresponsible in the way it blindsides viewers. The company may be donating funds to suicide prevention but the ad is triggering and actually provides no mention of support services.
“I lost my brother to suicide and I’ve never seen anything so offensive and irresponsible.”
In its first response, Mood Tea pointed to the experts on mental health it consulted for the campaign: “We sought expert advice on the fact that talking about suicide does not encourage people to take their own life. In our press release at the launch of the campaign Dr Liz Scott, Associate Professor at Sydney University highlights: ‘Talking about thoughts of self-harm and suicide is tough but helps young people find the care that they need to survive and thrive.'”
Mood Tea also emphasised its commitment to providing information on suicide prevention: “We have sought advice and The Monkeys (our creative agency) are working on including help line information in the ad to provide further support and information for viewers. Our mission is to help prevent youth suicide and we are always looking for ways to improve the way we can do that throughout our business.
“In relation to the complaint around the ads playing to stereotypes, the ads were created to depict movie scenes from well known tea drinking scenes. Great consideration was taken to ensure we were appealing to the audiences for which the issues discussed are relevant. These two categories are young men suffering anxiety and depression and feeling a stigma around speaking out. And young girls who are vulnerable to online bullying. The stories used were taken from real experiences and the voices represented the genders of the people who experience the issues. We are an inclusive, diverse organisation and strongly advocate for smashing the stigma around mental health.
“The advertisements are not directed at children but are able to be viewed by children. One has a P rating, and one has a W rating. The product is primarily directed to adults not children. No nutritional claims are made in the advertisement. Placement of the TVC has been based on the CAD rating of each advertisement. The media agency managing the campaign (OMD) has re-iterated to all networks that the commercial is not placed in any programming that may be child specific moving forwards even if the CAD rating allows it to run there.”
The Ad Standards Community Panel (the panel) noted that while mental health issues are important, there is a community expectation that when suicide is mentioned in the media, information should be included for people to get help. The panel concluded it would be best that contact information should be included in the advertisement.
For both the 30 second and 15 second version of the tea ceremony spot, the panel found that if it was edited so it did include information to seek help, it would most likely be found not to be in breach of section 2.6.
In regards to the gender stereotyping, the panel noted that: “here was nothing in either advertisement which suggested that the women were ditzy, or the men were not capable of talking about their feelings. In fact, the panel noted that in each instance the people in the advertisement were having clear and open discussions about mental health issues. The panel considered that the advertisements did not depict negative gender stereotypes.”
In response to the findings, Mood Tea confirmed that The Monkeys are revising the content of the spots to include the Lifeline helpline number. Once the creative is dispatched and relevant approvals are gained, OMD will ensure all publishers replace the existing spots with the new version.
The Mood Tea campaign was a campaign with wide support from the industry, with those involved including The Monkeys, OMD, Facebook, We Are Social, Are Media, Google, JC Decaux, News Corp, Nine, Nova, Ooh Media and Seven West Media.
