A Just Eat advert promoting McDonald’s has been banned for breaking rules about advertising high in fat sugar and salt (HFSS) products to under-16s.
Youth campaign group Biteback 2030 made the initial complaint about the advert, which appeared in December 2023 and featured the text: ‘Fancy a McMuffin in the morning? McNugget for lunch? Or a big night in with a Big Mac? Get them delivered right here’.
Beneath the text there was a changing image of McNuggets that was replaced by the Just Eat and McDonald’s logos.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned the junk food advert for not taking “sufficient care” to avoid targeting children.
Defending its placement, Just Eat said it used Meta’s age-targeting tools to aim the advert at users over the age of 18. It said if the complainant had used a Facebook account registered to someone aged under 18, they wouldn’t have been able to see the ad in the first place.
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The ASA acknowledged this was the case but said the delivery firm had not used available interest-based restrictions to to further avoid targeting this age group.
“The ad was a paid-for ad on Facebook; we understood that interest-based targeting measures were available for such ads, and consequently, we considered that Just Eat should have utilised those tools to minimise the exposure of the ad to under-16s,” it said.
“We concluded that Just Eat had not taken sufficient care to ensure that the ad, which promoted several HFSS products, was not directed at individuals aged under 16 years. The ad therefore breached the Code.”
Rules against advertising HFSS products, as set out by the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) require that they are not directed at under-16s.
A range of councils including Luton, Tower Hamlets and more have banned junk food billboards in their jurisdiction – and calls for tougher legislation come as studies have outlined the impact of techniques including bright packaging, unusual shapes and flavours which are enticing to children.
