Mondelez International has ended up with cheese rather egg on its face after pulling an ad for Dairylea showing a woman being splattered, after the activity was branded “disgraceful” and insensitive”.
A series of Tweets, designed to tie in with the new series of Great British Bake Off, stated: “It’s that bakey, cakey time of year…splat one in a friend’s face! We Dareyleas you. Share your dare with #Dareylea.”
Elvis handles the social media account for the brand, but it is not known whether the agency was responsible for this activity.
Which ever agency it was, had not reckoned on the backlash, however, with Twitter user Allergy Mum UK, co-founder of @foodallergyuk, responding: “Which idiot at @Dairylea thought this would be a great campaign idea?”
Cue outrage, with Sharon White, chief executive of the School & Public Nurses Assocation, blasting: “This is disgraceful! We have had a tragic death of a young person from cheese being thrown at him due to allergies. Wholly insensitive. Please remove!”
Other Twitter users joined in, Clare Hussein tweeted: “I cannot begin to think how anyone would think this is a suitable ad campaign. Disgusting.” LRH added: “Omg this is awful. The poor wee boy who sadly lost his life when his classmates threw cheese at him, do these advertising executives not live in the real world.”
Sarah Baumann, managing director of Vayner Media, tweeted: “I hope you are withdrawing this ad immediately and taking action with whichever misguided agency or internal team came up with this idea. How can you claim to be a brand that understands children, families and nutrition with such utter ignorance of food allergies?”
Mondelez insisted it had not intended to cause offence. A tweet from the Dairylea account said: “We understand your concern here and always take our advertising responsibility very seriously. You should know that the advert was a small part of a broader campaign and is no longer running. It was not our intention to cause any offence or upset.”
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