After more than two years of deliberation, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint about a Red Tractor advert from 2021 and said it must not be shown again.
However, Red Tractor has slammed the decision, saying that the ASA and other have not only misinterpreted the data that was used to make the complaint, but that the ASA has ignored its own standards in reaching its conclusion. The ASA ruling, published on 15 October 2025, relates to an old Red Tractor advert that was first aired in 2021 and followed a complaint made by campaign group River Action in 2023 which Red Tractor says was based on an inaccurate interpretation of Environment Agency (EA) data.
‘As explained to the ASA at that time, the then Head of Agriculture at the EA, Kevin Austin confirmed that the data had been misinterpreted. Red Tractor has since spent more than two years cooperating fully with the ASA’s investigation and defending its position,’ the standards organisation said in a statement.
The ASA has been considering this complaint for over two years, during which time they’ve flipped from not upholding to upholding, said Red Tractor’s CEO, Jim Moseley. “We believe the ASA’s final decision is fundamentally flawed and misinterprets the content of our advert. If the advert was clearly misleading, it wouldn’t have taken so long to reach this conclusion. Accordingly, the ASA’s actions are minimal. They’ve confirmed that we can continue to use ‘Farmed with Care’ but simply need to provide more information on the specific standards being referred to, such as a link to our website.
“The advert, which is now almost five years old, was last broadcast in 2023 and focused on Red Tractor’s standards for traceability, food safety and animal welfare. It made no environmental claim, and we completely disagree with the assumption that it would have been misinterpreted by consumers.
“While we fully respect the ASA’s role, we are concerned about the process they’ve followed. First, rather than use the accepted ‘average consumer test’ the ASA has used their own judgement that a minority of informed consumers may misinterpret the advert. We believe this is an error in law and certainly a departure from normal practice. Second, we’re concerned that the use of pastoral imagery (in CGI) in conjunction with messages about responsible farming, is treated as an implicit environmental claim. Both concerns could have serious implications for other advertisers, particularly in the field of food and farming.”
Red Tractor added that, the advert makes two simple claims: that Red Tractor ‘standards are met, and that food is ‘farmed with care.’ These are clear references to Red Tractor’s own standards for animal welfare, traceability and food safety – as approved by Clearcast in 2021 and 2023 – not to environmental law or Environment Agency regulations. Neither the voiceover, nor the script, nor the imagery makes any environmental claim.
