Nude picnickers ham advert 
‘not offensive’

AN ADVERT for a brand of ham featuring a group of naked picnickers prompted 371 complaints, the majority objecting that it was offensive.

The TV campaign for Richmond ham opened with a man standing in a field and admiring a sand-
wich while wearing only a cap, before strolling past a group of naked people who were eating a picnic.

The man sang: “Oh Richmond ham, as nature intended, you’ve nothing to hide Richmond ham, to me you taste blooming splendid,”

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Most of the complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) objected that the advert, which was restricted to broadcast outside of children’s programming, was offensive and inappropriate for younger viewers.

But Kerry Foods, which owns the brand, said the advert 
demonstrated a “well-adjusted, comfortable and completely non-sexual attitude to the human body”.

The ASA did not uphold complaints that the nudity was offensive, but ruled that the advert misled consumers by describing the product as “Britain’s only ham”, when it was, in fact, made in Ireland.

The ASA ruled that the advert must not be broadcast again in its current form.

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