UKs advertising watchdog has banned an ad campaign by animal rights group Peta for misleading consumers that swine flu could be contracted by eating meat.
Petas poster campaign stated Meat kills in large letters. In the background smaller text listed a range of superbugs including E coli, mad cow disease, swine flu and mrsa.
The words swine flu were more prominent than the surrounding text. A line at the bottom of the ad said: Go Vegetarian.
UKs Advertising Standards Authority (asa) said the poster referred to a number of diseases, two of which were known to have originated from eating meat and two that did not.
Peta said it did not intend to suggest that eating meat caused swine flu but wanted to highlight the role that livestock production played in the incubation, development and spread of fatal infectious diseases.
An asa spokesperson said, We considered some readers might infer from the poster, and in particular the claim, Meat Kills in conjunction with the urging Go Vegetarian, that eating meat caused swine flu.
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