🍔 Ad Complaints and Ban
Just Eat's Facebook ad, featuring McDonald's products, appeared on December 15, 2023. The ad faced a complaint from Bite Back 2030, a group fighting against youth junk food marketing. They argued that the ad promoted high-fat, salt, or sugar (HFSS) foods to minors, violating UK marketing rules.
🚫 ASA's Ruling
The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned the ad for not adequately preventing exposure to children under 16. Despite Just Eat's use of Meta's age targeting tools, the ASA found they did not consider interest-based factors, which are crucial under the CAP code to further restrict the audience.
📋 CAP Code Violation
The CAP code mandates that HFSS ads should not target under-16s. Relying solely on age data is insufficient due to potential age misreporting. The ASA stated, "Just Eat had not taken sufficient care to ensure that the ad was not directed at individuals aged under 16." Therefore, the ad breached the CAP code rule 15.18.
💬 Just Eat's Response
Just Eat defended itself by stating that McDonald's classified their products, and they targeted individuals over 18 using Facebook's tools. They also provided data to show no under-18s saw the ad. However, the ASA maintained that interest-based targeting should have been used to further narrow the audience, leading to the ad being banned.
Should stricter rules be enforced on HFSS product ads?
