Ad description
A Facebook post and paid-for TikTok ad for Simmer, a food delivery service, seen on 28 March 2024:
a. The Facebook post on the Simmer Facebook page included a video showing clips from an episode of the BBC programme Dragons’ Den. The video began with brief clips of each ‘Dragon’, with Sara Davies commenting, “I have never been on one of these subscriptions where you get food delivered” followed by a quick cut to her saying “… so what do I pay weekly?”. The video then cut to a man wearing a “SIMMER”-branded top responding, “So we deliver high protein chef-made meals. You get lunch and dinner, Monday to Friday. Sixty different dishes per month, all for just 50 quid”, along with images of Simmer’s food. The video cut to clips of positive reactions from the Dragons including Sara Davies commenting, “Honestly, it’s that good” and Deborah Meaden stating, “I really like this”.
b. The paid-for TikTok ad, from the @Simmer.eats account, featured the same video as ad (a).
Issue
Four complainants, including Planthood Ltd, who understood that the videos used footage from Planthood’s appearance on Dragons’ Den, challenged whether the ads were misleading.Response
Simmer Ltd said that the ads were intended to be posted as organic and entertaining April Fool’s social media content for their existing followers. A member of the team had mistakenly understood that the video was also intended to be used for paid advertising and edited the video by inappropriately captioning and cropping it before uploading it to platforms. They acknowledged that this was a mistake and confirmed that the paid ads were removed within two working days. They had also instigated a new system for approving organic and paid social media content.Assessment
Upheld
The ASA understood that the footage used in the ads was taken from Planthood Ltd’s appearance on a Dragons’ Den episode which aired on 23 February 2023. The ads featured clips from the episode, in which the Dragons asked questions about the product offering, edited alongside Simmer’s own footage responding to those questions. The ads then incorporated cuts from the footage where the Dragons praised Planthood’s product, transitioning to images of Simmer’s own food and branding.
We acknowledged that Simmer had removed a paid ad on Facebook featuring the same content within two days of its first publication, but we understood the post on their Facebook page, ad (a), continued to appear after that.We considered that consumers would interpret the ads as featuring genuine content from a Dragons’ Den episode in which Simmer appeared. There was nothing in the content to suggest otherwise, and the ads did not convey a light-hearted “April Fool’s Day” tone and had been published on 28 March rather than 1 April.
We considered that the use of footage from Dragons’ Den in which the Dragons expressed approval of Simmer’s products would be understood by consumers as being akin to an endorsement from the Dragons. Therefore, we concluded that the ads gave the misleading impression that Simmer had appeared on Dragons’ Den, and that the Dragons liked, invested in and endorsed Simmer’s products.Ads (a) and (b) breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading Advertising), 3.45, 3.46 and 3.47 (Endorsements and Testimonials).
Action
The ads must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Simmer Ltd that their future ads must not misleadingly imply endorsements were genuine if that was not the case and that they must relate to the advertised product.
