Salmon Tasmania has successfully overturned an advertising standards ruling that found one of its ads about conditions beneath salmon pens was misleading.
The Ad Standards Community Panel originally ruled in June that a cinema ad from the “Tasmanians depend on salmon” campaign breached environmental claims rules.
The panel initially found the ad gave the impression that all Tasmanian salmon farms resembled the one filmed at Nubeena on the state’s south-east coast.
On review, the panel reversed that finding, ruling the ad did not make misleading or deceptive claims about salmon farming in the Nubeena region.
The 90-second ad featured Kelsey Treloar, co-managing director of underwater robotics company Southern Ocean SubSea, narrating footage captured beneath active salmon pens at Nubeena in February.
“People are under the perception that underneath the pens is just a wasteland of sludge,” Treloar said in the ad.
“It’s not that at all.”
A complaint had argued the ad made untrue claims about salmon farming’s environmental impact.
A majority of the panel initially agreed the ad could mislead viewers into thinking conditions at all Tasmanian salmon farms were similar to those at Nubeena.
Salmon Tasmania appealed, arguing the panel ignored key evidence and stretched its interpretation beyond what the ad actually showed.
An independent reviewer recommended the panel re-examine the evidence and on reconsideration it found the ad’s claims were specific to Nubeena and did not need to be supported by evidence from other farms.
The panel ruled Salmon Tasmania was entitled to continue screening the ad.
In a statement to Pulse, Salmon Tasmania CEO John Whittington said the organisation stood by its campaign.
“Salmon Tasmania stands by our advertisement which tells the story of the people who are at the heart of our industry,” he said.
“We welcome the decision by the Advertising Standards Board.”
Independent MP for Franklin Peter George said the ad still painted a misleading picture of the broader industry.
“The idea that somehow a fish pen in Nubeena where it’s off the coast in more energetic waters is somehow a reflection of what happens beneath the pens in the D’Entrecasteaux Channel or in Macquarie Harbour or in Long Bay or in the Huon Estuary is a nonsense,” he told Pulse.
George called for “independent monitoring, contemporaneous independent monitoring underneath all its pens done by independent analysis, allowing people to see what’s happening”.
