Marketing Animals - Antennae The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture

Ed Edwards and Dave Masterman
The Great Escape, Anchor Original Butter Co. CHI and Partners, London CHI and Partners
motorcycle trying to jump a fence to escape
from farmers armed with pitchforks. The advert
used the film’s title music and the setting,
although visually stripped-back to incorporate
impressions of snow topped peaks; reminiscent of
the familiar alpine setting used for the original
motorcycle chase scene with Steve McQueen.
Print advertisements that accompanied the freerange
campaign used Polaroid pictures of cows
in front of well-known landmarks such as the Eifel
Tower and a pyramid, with the strapline: ”Our
cows are free to roam.”
Concerns were raised about the
company’s depiction of “happy cows,” and the
free-range campaign received public criticism in
1997 when an advert that depicted a calf
“hatching” from an egg then relaxing with its
mother amongst other contented Jersey cows
attracted fifty-four viewer complaints to the
Independent Television Commission. Public
objections to the advertisement were reported by
the ITC as including:
a) that the use of the term "free-range"
implied the cows used to produce Anchor
are allowed to keep their calves with
them, are in pasture all year round or are
more humanely treated than usual.
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(Some farmers amongst the
complainants pointed out that cattle
in New Zealand traditionally have their
tailsdocked);
b) that Anchor butter is no more natural or
pure than other brands;
(ITC, 1997, ”Anchor Butter”)
None of the complaints were upheld by the ITC,
which, in its assessment of the objections, stated
that the advertiser had confirmed that “the New
Zealand cows used to produce Anchor Butter
were kept in pasture all year round which justified
the use of the term ‘free-range’” (ITC, 1997). The
complaints regarding the implication that calves
stayed with their mothers received no response
from the ITC, although the issue of tail-docking
was accounted for in the following way: “The
animals shown in the commercial had not had
their tails docked but the ITC did not think that
inaccuracy was significant enough to make the
advertising misleading” (ITC, 1997). Furthermore
the report noted that “The ITC did not think the
commercial implied that Anchor is better than
other brands, rather that being in pasture all year
is a more ‘natural’ existence” (ITC, 1997). Although
consumer objections to Anchor Butter advertising
were directed toward the misrepresentation of