The Advertising Standards Association (ASA) has banned a series of Burger King ads after the fast food chain was accused of targeting young children with unhealthy food.
The online ads were sent to email subscribers of the ‘Your Burger King’ loyalty programme, contravening HFSS advertising regulations as they offered deals that could be redeemed by people under the age of 16 without the need for consent from a parent or guardian.
Sent in August last year, the ads in question offered subscribers buy-one-get-one-free and cut-price deals on a range of many items such as the Spicy Mayo Whopper and Doritos King Box.
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For its part, Burger King has said that it believed the age verification requirements it had put in place were adequate, however the ASA ruled that the restaurateur needed a requirement to provide a date of birth.
The single complainant who raised concerns over the ads was Food Active, a health programme run by the Health Equalities Group – which is directly funded by local authorities, the NHS and Public Health England.
In its summary, the regulator pointed out that businesses must ensure that “they have taken all reasonable steps” to exclude under-16s from marketing lists for HFSS products, and that as no age verification was required – Burger King’s ads contravened this.
