The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has rejected a complaint about alleged "over-hydration" in a Powerade ad starring athlete Steven Adams.
The complainant said the ad shows Adams drinking too much fluid when he takes a "major squirt" of a Powerade during a basketball game, which the complainant says is a "dangerous over the top image".
"Having been a professional dancer in my youth, we were not allowed, when we came offstage after an energetic dance or between dances to drink fluid as when we went back on stage it would 'slosh' in our stomachs," the complaint read.
- NBA: Instagram blunder lands Steven Adams in strife
- Kiwi Steven Adams teaches NBA reporter a lesson in manners
"We could wet our mouths with a provided wedge of orange, but had to take care not to get a fragment stuck in our throat which could cause coughing or choking.
"The over-hydration craze these days shouldn't be demonstrated in such an overdone manner. A sip should be enough. I know the ad is about POWER, but the huge, bottle crunching final major squirt is a dangerous over the top image."
The complaint was rejected by the ASA, with the chair adjudging that Powerade was "highlighting the bottle design that could deliver fast hydration to those, like Steven Adams, a professional basketball player, who needed to hydrate quickly during a game".
"A level of hyperbole was permissible in advertising to demonstrate a particular product feature such as a precise water flow cap and squeezable bottle," the chair continued.
The chair acknowledged that the complainant had experience as a professional dancer, but the advertisement had not breached the Code for Advertising Food and so it had no grounds to proceed.
Newshub.
