Ad description
A paid-for Facebook ad for Just Eat, seen on 15 December 2023, featured text that stated “Fancy a McMuffin in the morning? McNugget for lunch? Or a big night in with a Big Mac? Get them delivered right here”. Below that was a changing image of McNuggets that was replaced by the Just Eat and McDonald’s logos.
Issue
Biteback 2030 challenged whether the ad was for a product that was high in fat, salt, or sugar (HFSS product ad) and was directed at children through the selection of media or context in which it appeared.Response
Just Eat.co.uk Ltd t/a Just Eat said McDonald’s determined the status of their products. However, they understood that the meat variants of the Big Mac and McMuffin were HFSS products.
Just Eat targeted the ad at individuals aged over 18 years using Meta’s age targeting tools. They therefore highlighted that if the complainant had a Facebook account registered with an age of under 18, they would not have been able to see the ad at that time. Just Eat provided data obtained from Facebook which they said demonstrated that the ad had not been served to users who were registered as under-18 on the platform in December 2023. They confirmed that interest-based targeting had not been used as part of the targeting parameters for the ad. Just Eat were satisfied that the targeting of the ad was responsible.
Assessment
Upheld
The CAP Code required that HFSS product ads must not be directed at people under 16 years of age through the selection of media or the context in which they appeared.
The ad referenced three types of McDonald’s products: McMuffins, McNuggets and a Big Mac. The ASA understood that the Big Mac was an HFSS product for the purposes of the Code. We also understood that there were six variations of the McMuffin, five of which contained meat, and that those meat McMuffins were also HFSS products for the purpose of the Code. The ad was therefore an HFSS product ad.
CAP Guidance on age-restricted ads online stated that marketers should be able to demonstrate that they had taken all reasonable steps, including using all additional targeting tools available to them, to ensure that HFSS product ads were directed at an audience aged 16 and over to minimise children’s exposure to them. It also stated that targeting solely on the basis of age data was unlikely to satisfy the requirements of CAP’s media placement restrictions for age-restricted ads online because of younger users misreporting their age or different people sharing the same device.
We acknowledged that age-based targeting was applied to the ad to exclude those who were registered as under-18 on Facebook from seeing the ad. However, interest-based targeting factors had not been used to exclude groups of people more likely to be under 16 from the target audience of the ad. 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.
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.The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 15.18 (HFSS product and placement).
Action
The ad must not appear in its current form. We told Just Eat.co.uk Ltd t/a Just Eat to ensure they used appropriate targeting to ensure their ads that featured HFSS products were not directed at individuals under the age of 16 years.
