Peta has relaunched an anti-meat advert featuring a baby smoking a cigar, after the Advertising Standards Authority banned it from using the ad for being misleading.

Last month the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld two complaints from members of the public who objected to the animal welfare charity’s campaign’s original wording: “You wouldn’t let your child smoke. Like smoking, eating meat increases the risk of heart disease and cancer. Go vegan!”

The grievance was that the wording was misleading and too general. So now the copy's second sentence instead reads: “Like smoking, eating bacon, sausages and other processed meats is linked to cancer.”

In June, the ASA concluded the following about the original advertisement: “We considered that because the ad likened the risks associated with eating any kind of meat to the risks of smoking, consumers would understand from the ad that the connection between eating any kind of meat and the risks of heart disease and cancer had been proven beyond doubt, which was clearly not the case, and we therefore concluded that the ad was misleading.”

Associate director of Peta UK, Mimi Bekhechi, said in a statement: “Peta's message to parents about the health risks associated with eating meat needs to be heard. With this new billboard, Peta will remind parents that just as we should put down cigarettes, we should also put down meat and pick up fibre-rich, heart-healthy plant-based foods instead."

A spokesman from ASA told civilsociety.co.uk that the association does not pre-approve advertisement copy or changes made to it, but if more complaints followed it would investigate to see if the new advert had followed its guidelines as per its usual process.

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