Ad description
A series of in-game ads for an adult dating app appeared in the cartoon-style game app "D1D", in which players completed mini-games to build a relationship with members of the music band One Direction. The ads, which were a mixture of banner and full-screen ads, featured images of men and women and text such as "Meet Local Singles!", "Meet Girls" and "Meet Guys". One banner that appeared across the top of the screen during gameplay featured icons labelled "BROWSE", "CHAT", "FLIRT" and "DATE", with the accompanying text "FREE DOWNLOAD ZOOSK".
Issue
Childnet International, who believed the ad encouraged children to talk to strangers, challenged whether the ads had been inappropriately and irresponsibly placed within a game likely to be played by children.
Response
Zoosk Inc said their service was for adults and they took a number of steps to ensure that the placement of their ads was age-appropriate and did not target children, including within apps. Their contracts with the third-party agencies that placed their mobile advertising contained provisions aimed at preventing inappropriate placement, including a specific provision which required that they would not place ads on sites or apps targeted at children.
Zoosk said that, when clicking on their ads, consumers were required to provide their date of birth, and those who were under 18 years of age were not allowed to create a Zoosk account. Furthermore, users must pay a subscription before being able to chat with other members. There were therefore restrictions on the ability of children being able to access their services.
Zoosk said they had been alerted to their ad appearing in the D1D app before the ASA had contacted them and they had taken immediate steps to investigate the matter and ensure the ads were removed. That included their marketing team carrying out an assessment of apps on the market to create a list of apps inappropriate for their ads, which they then shared with their agencies along with a reminder of the relevant contract clauses. They had also suspended their account with the agency which they believed had placed the ad in the D1D app, and suspended accounts with other agencies that might not be able to satisfy their requirements regarding placing ads. They also contacted the app's developer to inform them that Zoosk ads should not be placed in the D1D app.
Zoosk noted that the D1D app was classified "9+" in Apple's app classification system, but said that was a consumer-facing statement within iTunes which was not indicative of the typical age range of people interested in the app. They said the ad market typically relied on self-classification by the app developer to determine the category and age-appropriateness of the app. They commented that, on investigation, it appeared the content of the app was not suitable for children. They highlighted that it encouraged the virtual dating of the members of One Direction, who were in their early twenties, encouraged users to flirt with band members, included a game in which users were congratulated for their French kissing ability, and referenced further games which could be played once users had become a band members' 'girlfriend', such as treating them to breakfast in bed and having a romantic candlelit bubble bath. Zoosk suggested their agency may therefore have been misled into placing their ad, for a dating service, into the app.
Digicub, the app's developer, said the game's main demographic was 13- to 17-year-olds, and confirmed Apple had applied a 9+ rating. They said they provided advertising space, but did not determine what ads were displayed. They said it was possible to apply filters to those spaces to prevent certain categories of ads appearing; they had applied a "17+" filter to the app, which prevented ads which were not suitable for those under the age of 17 from being displayed in the game. They said the Zoosk ad had appeared because the ad provider had not flagged it as "17+"and it therefore was not caught by the filters. Digicub said they had contacted the agency to make them aware of the issue, had changed the filter for ads from those appropriate for those of 17 years of age and older to those appropriate for those of 12 years of age and older, and had asked Apple to reclassify the app's age rating to 12+, to ensure a similar situation did not occur in future.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA acknowledged that Zoosk had procedures in place that were intended to prevent their ads appearing in apps targeted at children, and had taken steps to withdraw the ads from the D1D app and to address concerns with the agencies responsible for placing their mobile ads once they were made aware of the issue. However, we noted that Zoosk had been unable to identify the third-party vendor responsible for placing the ad in the D1D app, and were concerned that their procedures had not been adequate to ensure their ads only appeared in appropriate mediums.
We appreciated that the D1D app had more mature themes than one would expect from a game with a target demographic of 13- to 17-year-olds. However, we were concerned that ads for an adult dating service that encouraged those who saw them to "chat", "flirt", "date" and "meet local singles" had not been flagged as appropriate only for adult audiences and had, as a result, appeared in an app that was targeted at children. For that reason, we concluded that the ads had been irresponsibly placed and were in breach of the Code.
The ads breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.3 1.3 Marketing communications must be prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society. (Responsible advertising) and 5.1 5.1 Marketing communications addressed to, targeted directly at or featuring children must contain nothing that is likely to result in their physical, mental or moral harm: 5.1.1 5.1.1 children must not be encouraged to enter strange places or talk to strangers and 5.1.5 5.1.5 distance selling marketers must take care when using youth media not to promote products that are unsuitable for children. (Children).
Action
We told Zoosk Inc to ensure that their ads did not appear in apps that were targeted at children in future.
