The Advertising Standards Authority has dismissed a complaint about a McDonald's SA television advert 'misrepresenting' the late singer Prince, who was a strict vegan. Jacob Mogano argued the fast-food giant had no authority to decide how the late pop star should be represented, notes TimesLIVE.

In the advert, different superhero characters are played by a man and a woman sitting in a McDonald's store. The duo transforms into new outrageous characters several times, one of which is a man resembling Prince with a guitar. McDonald's SA said the advert should be 'viewed from a hypothetical reasonable person's view who is neither hypersensitive nor hypercritical'.

The commercial was not about Prince, the artist, but rather about two young adults playing a game of one-upmanship and trying to be cooler than the other, they explained. The advert was meant to be both humorous and a hyperbole and should not be taken literally, they added.

The authority said the character depicted was clearly dressed up to look like Prince and the 'association distorts Prince's legacy and same deserves to be protected and defended'. However, it said viewers should not see the advert as an endorsement by Prince or his estate.

'The execution of the commercial is over the top and exaggerated. The man who is dressed up as Prince is not in fact Prince and the communication is clearly that he strives to be as cool as Prince. The emphasis is on how cool Prince is, and not on eating meat.'

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