Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Panda Ad Ban

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned an advert by the Scottish government which claims China was "gifting" the pandas Tian Tian and Yang Guang to Edinburgh Zoo. The pandas are on a very expensive 10-year lease that is costing Edinburgh Zoo £600,000 a year. I'd have banned the ad for using the horrible term "gifting"! Scotsman.com shows a detail of the banned advert (title link). I've underlined "gifting" in red. The pandas have caused huge interest and have certainly put Edinburgh Zoo back on the map. There's even a panda tartan (CLICK). But will it all be worth a total of £6m? Below is a photo with two Tian Tian's for the price of one. Seven-year-old Tian Tian Brunton, a girl with a Chinese mum and a Scottish dad, made headlines when she visited the zoo to see her namesake (CLICK).