An emotional Christmas ad for UK-based grocery chain Iceland has been banned from TV after being deemed "too political" by the advertising watchdog.
The supermarket had planned to use an animated Greenpeace video, voiced by actor Emma Thompson, to tell a story of how orangutans are losing their habitat due to rainforest destruction for palm oil.
The animation follows Iceland's announcement it would be the first major UK supermarket to remove palm oil from its own-brand foods.
The ad begins with a young girl who discovers an orangutan in her room. The orangutan then begins to discuss why palm oil growers are destroying their habitat.
The supermarket chain was forced to release the banned advert via YouTube on Thursday, and it has quickly racked up close to three million views.
Iceland managing director Richard Walker said he was "gutted" by the ban because the ad was supposed to reiterate the company's commitment to removing palm oil.
"We were told it was deemed too political, so we're absolutely gutted because we wanted to share this message far and wide and underline Iceland's commitment to remove palm oil from all of our products by the end of this year."
Iceland Christmas advert which has been blocked by Clearcast, the body which approves or rejects adverts for broadcast, for being too political. Source: AAP
Clearcast said the ad "contravenes the prohibition on political advertising" because it is "an advertisement which is inserted by or on behalf of a body whose objects are wholly or mainly of a political nature," referring to advertisement's origins with Greenpeace.
Social media users turned to Twitter to express their surprise that the ad was deemed "too political".
More than 500,000 people have signed a petition calling for an overturning of the ban.
The animation has been circulating, thanks to Greenpeace since August.
The WWF has classified orangutans as critically endangered in Malaysia and Indonesia.
