Ad description
A paid-for Facebook and Instagram ad for Bargain Booze, seen on 3 December 2024:
a. The Facebook ad included a caption that began “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…”. The accompanying video featured festive music, and Santa arriving at a Bargain Booze shop in a red car. He entered the shop, prompting a woman to look around the end of an aisle and hold her hand up to her mouth in shock and excitement. Santa looked at the different alcohol available. He watched the customers and used an app on a tablet to match different alcohol products to different people and decide whether the customers he saw in the shop were naughty or nice.
A woman was shown holding two bottles and trying to decide between them. Santa gestured towards her and glitter flew through the air and magically added gift-wrapping to one. The app then showed that a man in the shop was ‘naughty’, but he returned a dropped purse to another customer and the app changed to ‘nice’; Santa gasped, smiled and nodded. He then bought the alcohol he had chosen for each customer and signalled that he didn’t need a plastic bag because he had his red Santa sack. As he left the shop, text on-screen stated, “GIVING IS BETTER THAN RECEIVING”. The woman from the start of the ad came to the door of the shop and, smiling, watched him leave. The ad ended with the on-screen text “MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM Bargain Booze”.
b. The Instagram ad featured the same content as ad (a).
Issue
The ASA challenged whether the ads breached the Code, because they featured Santa in a way which was likely to appeal particularly to people under 18 years of age.
Response
Bestway Retail Ltd t/a Bargain Booze said that, whilst Santa was a fictitious character likely to appeal to those under 18 years of age, they believed his appeal was far broader than that. They said that Santa was a cultural icon, who also appealed to adults as well as children, as opposed to, a character such as elf on the shelf, which was particularly aimed at young children. They believed that Santa was not associated with youth culture, rather Santa was for everyone, young and old.
Bargain Booze explained that, whilst the ads did feature a fictitious character who was likely to appeal to people under 18, they did not believe the depiction was done in a way that might encourage the young to drink. The ads did not show anyone drinking and no one who played a significant role was under 25 or shown behaving in an adolescent or juvenile manner. They highlighted the woman at the beginning of the ads holding her hand to her mouth in shock and excitement and said that she was not displaying juvenile behaviour, but rather a natural response that adults would also exhibit if they came face-to-face with Santa.
Bargain Booze stated that it took its responsibilities very seriously and used its best endeavours to ensure that alcohol marketing does not appeal to people under 18 in a way which might encourage them to drink. They stated that they used targeting to boost the ads to a selected audience in the UK with a minimum age of 18 and provided their targeting to the ASA.
Assessment
Upheld
The CAP Code stated that marketing communications must not be likely to appeal particularly to people under 18. Alcohol ads must not, therefore, have content that would appeal more to under-18s than it would to over-18s.
The ASA acknowledged that the fictitious character of Father Christmas had appeal to people of all ages, and we did not consider his inclusion to be inherently problematic in ads for alcohol products. Notwithstanding that, we considered Christmas, and the traditions surrounding it, were likely to appeal to children. We therefore assessed whether the way in which the character of Father Christmas was presented in this ad, particularly appealed to those under 18.
The ads contained many nostalgic Christmas elements, including Father Christmas in his full traditional costume and playful festive music. We considered that the overall impression of the ads was reminiscent of classic Christmas family films, which would be familiar, and therefore appealing, to children of all ages. Furthermore, we considered the exaggerated expression of surprise and wonder on the woman’s face when she saw Father Christmas reinforced that impression and was reflective of a child’s reaction to encountering Father Christmas, which we considered would particularly appeal to children.
The ads also featured several magical elements; for example, Father Christmas was shown with a barometer-style app on a tablet which could determine whether individuals had been “naughty” or “nice”. We considered children would be familiar with Father Christmas monitoring their behaviour throughout the year, and as such, we considered that children would have a particular affinity with the barometer’s inclusion in the ad. Later in the ad, Father Christmas waved his hands, and a bottle of wine appeared magically wrapped, alongside another which appeared with a gift tag. We considered that showing Father Christmas in this way contributed to the impression that he was a magical figure and that would further appeal particularly to children.
The ads also had a humorous tone which we considered would appeal to children. Father Christmas arrived in a red car, rather than a sleigh, and the car has the registration number “GIFT5 1981”. We also noted that the names of the people on Father Christmas’ naughty and nice list such as “MARY CHRISTMAS”, “CAROL SINGH”, “HOLLY” and “BILLY BAUBLES” were festive wordplays which we considered to be juvenile humour and would particularly appeal to children. Father Christmas was also shown paying by contactless technology and refusing a plastic bag in place of his red sack. We considered that this depicted the Father Christmas character in a humorous manner which was likely to appeal to young people. Whilst we acknowledged that many adults would also find those elements amusing, we considered they would particularly appeal to children.
We considered that it may have been acceptable for the ads to appear in a medium where under-18s could be, for all intents and purposes, entirely excluded from the audience. That would apply in circumstances where those who saw the ad had been robustly age-verified as being 18 or older, such as through marketing lists that had been validated by payment data or credit checking. We acknowledged that the ads had been targeted to those who were aged 18 or over. However, we understood Facebook and Instagram did not require users to be validated through such means when they signed up to the platform. Furthermore, we understood that interest-based targeting had not been used to exclude groups of people more likely to be under 18 from the target audience of the ad. Because the ads were seen in an environment where users self-verified on customer sign-up and did not use robust age-verification, and interest based targeting had not been used, we considered that under-18s had not been entirely excluded from the audience.
We considered that, had the character of Father Christmas been presented differently, the ads may not have particularly appealed to children. However, for the reasons stated above, we concluded that the ads had particular appeal to under-18s, and were therefore irresponsible, and breached the Code.
The ads breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 18.14 (Alcohol).
Action
The ads must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Bestway Retail Ltd t/a Bargain Booze that their ads for alcohol should not have particular appeal to under-18s.
