Fosters Ice Gets A Chilly Reception

The current Fosters Ice ad has provoked 132 viewers to complain to the ITC on the grounds that it is offensive.

The ad features an elderly Bushman searching for water and, as part of a traditional method, finding a toad from which to extract water. A kangaroo bounds into view, knocks the toad from the man’s grip and the narrator, who turns out to be the man’s westernized son, says that his father “never was the sharpest tool in the box” and suggests he would have been better off drinking Fosters.

Complainants variously objected that it was in poor taste to refer to drought, and by implication famine, for a comic purpose and that the depiction of the older Bushman was likely to encourage racist attitudes to people in developing countries, particularly those living a traditional life.

The ITC did not uphold the complaints, saying that the ad “did not depict human suffering in drought but ingenious survival techniques in naturally dry areas and it would be excessive to intervene on grounds of taste.” The Commission added that most viewers would see the ad as a light-hearted pastiche and it was unlikely to stimulate racist attitudes.

ITC: 0171 255 3000