Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
ARE YOU AN out-of-work mime considering a job in a fast food restaurant?
Don’t: that’s the advice Rabo Direct would give to you. Not everyone is happy with their stance, however.
The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) received two complaints about the bank’s TD advert which shows parents who regret sending their son to “any college” when he ends up becoming a mime working in a takeaway.
Both complainants thought the advertisement was offensive to fast food workers. One complainant considered the advertisement racist towards the fast food worker.
They also considered it “snobbish and insulting” as they don’t consider anything wrong with such a job.
Rabo Direct said it was ”surprised and sorry to hear that people had found their advertisement to be mocking and distasteful as it was not their intention to upset anyone”.
The bank stated that the ad attempted to highlight that “spending a significant amount of money to send your child to a clearly expensive college to become a mime artist, and then, as a mime artist to get a job in a fast food take away restaurant was a bad idea”.
They said that mime artists don’t speak and make their career out of pretending to be in a glass box, so they therefore felt it would be “humorous to put a mime artist in an actual glass box with a head set on”. They also stated that they did not consider that the advertisement was racist in any way and were unsure how it could be interpreted as such.
The complaint was not upheld by the ASAI.
But Astras DO break down
Another man complained about the General Motors ad in which Claudia Schiffer claims Opel Astras never break down. The man said he had owned an Astra and it had broken down on a number of occasions. The complaint was not upheld.
A complaint against an ad for the Lotto was also dismissed. The ad in question shows a woman on a beach telling her boss she can’t come into work due to “women’s problems”.
The complainant said it was inappropriate that the advertisement made a joke out of women who women who are “struggling to get equality in the workplace while also trying to deal with issues such as ‘women’s problems’”.
She thought the ad “was putting doubt into other minds that such problems were being used as an excuse to take time off work”.
In response, the National Lottery said it was their intention that “the humour of the situation was derived from the male character’s discomfort and Claire’s knowledge that she could provoke such discomfort and therefore, the joke was on him”.
Complaints made against a number of other groups such as Pigsback, Supervalu and TG4 were also not upheld.
Dunnes Stores
The ASAI upheld complaints made against four companies – Dunnes Stores, Less Stress, Argos and Map Travel.
A woman made a complaint after she spent €100 in Dunnes Stores and, instead of receiving €20 vouchers, was informed that the shop had stopped giving out the vouchers the previous Thursday. She said this fact had not been referenced anywhere in the advertising and therefore she had been misled.
Dunnes Stores did not respond when the ASAI looked into the incident.
‘Geopathic Stress’
The ASAI also upheld a complaint against Less Stress for a newspaper article that claimed ’Geopathic Stress’ could be the cause of anxiety and sleeping difficulties.
The complainant argued that there is ”no scientific basis or evidence to support” the claim that ‘Geopathic Stress’ exists
Meanwhile, a complaint was upheld against Argos as they advertised a “stylish Bush 28 Inch HD ready Saorview LED TV” that was not in stock in Ireland over a four-month period when a customer tried to purchase it on a number of occasions.
A woman successfully argued that an ad for a Holy Land Pilgrimage in Map Travel was misleading as the cost didn’t include €250 payable in taxes.
The ASAI’s most recent complaints bulletin is available in full on the organisation’s website.
Originally published: 12.51
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Can we have a list of names of the ones in Dublin?
They are all on the FSAI website.
Do they publish all the reports positive ones and bad ones ? Any link
How about a list please so we can avoid them
I’m going to Belfast for chips. According to the map they’re the bees knees.
Mentioning cork in the subheading and not Dublin is very misleading – the author easily dismisses Dublins number 1 spot due to population but not Cork.
Big city small problems
Aye. Dublin has bigger problems than just the most takeaways closing. Like open gang warfare, near daily shootings and a massive drugs problem.
There is 8 counties not mentioned in that list. Are we to assume everything was hunky dorey in those counties or is it the case the health inspectors in those counties are not doing their job properly.
There’s no food outlets in Leitrim. 4 pubs, a Spar, a petrol station and a church. That’s it.
So far in 2017 on the Fsai site tbese have been closed…. Express Pizza (take away), 6 Lord Edward Street, Limerick Punjab Pantry (take away), 39 Richmond Street South, Dublin 2 Synergy Subs Ltd t/a Subway (restaurant/café), Mellview House, M1 Retail Park, Drogheda, Louth Jalapeno Mexican Cuisine Ltd (restaurant/café), 46 Drumcondra Road Lower, Drumcondra, Dublin 9 Culleton’s Fish & Chips (restaurant/café), Main Street, Bansha, Tipperary Hot Spot (take away), Parnell Street, Limerick Polonez (retailer), 20 Moore Street, Dublin 1 Pacinos Restaurant, 18 Suffolk Street, Dublin 2 Beachview Tandoori (take away), Strand Road, Laytown, Meath Kavanaghs Fine Foods Cork Ltd (service sector) A Chef Kebab Foodstall, At Daltons Pub car park, Fuerty, Roscommon Day to Day (retailer), 54 Georges Street Upper, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin Palak Restaurant, High Street, Tuam, Galway Ali Baba (restaurant/café), Bank Place, Rathkeale, Limerick T/A I&A Organic Gardening and Catering (food processor), 21 Shandon Way, Shandon, Cork Auckley Ltd., The Palace (public house), 17 Ludlow Street, Navan, Meath Largo Foods (manufacturer), Kilbrew, Ashboune, Meath
And not one in Sligo!
Ah ya but we have the Wild Atlantic Way… all ye have is Hurling ha ha!
@Larry Doyle: The inspectors name was Kenneth and they completed their mission. Bad egg I’d say!!
Environmental Health Officers do a great job and follow things through.
I wish they could enforce a public notice on the front of the premises like in the U.K. A post on here mentioned some law in California which was even better but I can’t recall it.
Not surprised about The Punjab Pantry.. I was driving down Richmond Street yesterday and i kid you not it is like something out of Damascus. The dirt and smell OMG is like something i have never seen. FILTH. I can only imagine the restaurants/takeaways. Rolled the windows down and quickly rolled them back up. The hum in the air i can still smell it.
If the names of the places are already in the public domain, Why not publish them. This article is as good as useless if it doesn’t. I’m no wiser than I was before when it comes to deciding where not to eat. Sorry to be a moan.
No naming and shaming?
Having lived in Roscommon I can believe it.
I’d love to see a closure per capita rate – if anyone has the time
Name and shame please
Best chipper in the country was poison paddy’s in Blackrock village cork , when horse meet was meet and we still gave a few Bob for the black baby’s
Why not name and shame the offenders? Telling us in which counties they’re located is a pointless and tells us NOTHING.
Cleanest chipper I have come across recently is Whartons Fish and Chips in Bantry town in County Cork.
Is that yourself?
name and shame!
What about Moore Street, Dublin?
Were in cork are they
Why not name and shame the offenders? We need to know WHO they are, not just where they are so we can avoid eating at these places. The information is useless otherwise ….
What was the kip in Wicklow called ? Or Andreas
have your say