Adams Foods has been rapped by the advertising watchdog for endangering young children by showing one of its new Pilgrims Choice adverts before the 9pm watershed.

The Advertising Standards Authority received a total of 58 complaints about the ad, which features a miniature cowboy talking to a woman in her kitchen while shaving with an oversized cut-throat razor. The cowboy also later points an oversized toy gun at a cat, before exiting the scene via a cat flap.

Viewers challenged the ad on three grounds. Twenty-four people argued the ad was likely to cause “harmful emulation” by children because it was broadcast before 9pm, while some also accused the ad of trivialising gun and knife crime.

The ASA cleared Adams on the gun and knife crime counts, but said the ad should not have been shown before 9pm because younger children might not understand the humorous nature of the ad and could be tempted to emulate the cowboy’s shaving with kitchen knives.

“We were concerned that young children might mimic the cowboy’s actions using common household objects in a manner that could seriously endanger their health,” the ASA said. “We judged that the ad should have been given a 9pm timing restriction to ensure that it was not broadcast at a time of day when younger children were likely to be watching.”

Adams voluntarily rescheduled the ad to post-9pm slots from 19 May after receiving complaints, so the ASA said no further action was necessary.

“As a family brand, we took all this feedback extremely seriously and proactively chose to move the kitchen execution to a post-9pm time slot to ensure younger viewers were not upset,” an Adams Foods spokeswoman said. “The ASA report confirms that they agree with our decision.”

Adams also stressed the ad was not the lead execution of its cowboy campaign for Pilgrims Choice, which is set in a supermarket and not a kitchen, and said consumer reactions to the campaign overall had been “overwhelmingly positive”. It said the new ads had been viewed nearly 20,000 times on YouTube and the Pilgrims Choice Facebook page had received nearly 20,000 ‘likes’, with 1,259 fans actively talking about and sharing the new ads.

Adams also claimed the campaign had helped boost penetration of Pilgrims Choice from 13.1% to 21.4%, which it said was equivalent to an extra 2.2 million households buying into the brand over 12 weeks. The Pilgrims Choice brand itself was now worth £56m.

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