UK Watchdog Slams Special K Calorie Count, Bans Ads

July 10th, 2012. By AbiK

You know that Special K Challenge? That’s the one where you eat a Special K breakfast and lunch, and then have a ‘sensible meal’ for dinner—along with whatever fruits and vegetables you want, and the beverages you ‘normally’ have. And you’re supposed to lose weight…and fit into those jeans you’ve long since busted out of.

A twice-a-day Special K diet may help you shed some pounds, but the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over in the UK has taken issue with some of Kellogg’s Special K advertising. It seems that some of the Special K advertising has promoted the breakfast cereal as adding only  114 calories per serving to a daily diet—why, that’s a meal with just a few teeny calories over a “100-calorie” snack pack!

Surely, you can’t go wrong on your diet with that.

But, the UK ad watchdog has seen something wrong how the calories are counted in the Special K ads: where’s the milk? And that’s led to a false advertising slap on the wrist.

Seems a number of Brits—and, of course, Americans—eat their cereal with milk. And as such, the UK Special K ads showed women preparing their cereal breakfast by pouring milk into it. Those aforementioned 114 calories don’t account for the milk. And if  you add the milk back into the equation, that can boost the calorie count up to anywhere between 200 and 236 calories.

According to a recent report in the Daily Mail (7/4/12), Kellogg’s responded to a complaint the ASA received by stating that the company left out the milk calories because “many customers eat the cereal dry, or with orange juice or yogurt.”

That response, apparently, did not measure up enough for the ASA. The Special K ads have been banned.

Tags: Advertising Standards Authority, Consumer Fraud, false advertising, Kellogg's, Special K, Special K Diet, UK

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