DTC ready meal maker Simmer has been reprimanded by the ASA for parodying a rival brand’s Dragons’ Den appearance in two social media posts.
In what it later claimed was an April Fool’s Day “spoof”, Simmer posted footage of its founders – brothers Simmy and Jhai Dhillon – and meals edited into clips from an episode of Dragons’ Den in which vegan meal kit brand Planthood featured to Facebook at the end of March. It also posted the footage as a paid-for TikTok ad.
The ads featured the Dragons’ endorsements of Planthood’s meals, with Sara Davies commenting, “Honestly, it’s that good” and Deborah Meaden stating, “I really like this”.
Four complainants, including Planthood, claimed the ads were misleading.
Simmer argued the ads were intended to be posted as organic and entertaining April Fool’s Day content. However, a member of its 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.
Simmer acknowledged this was a mistake and confirmed that the paid ads were removed within two working days. It said it had introduced a new system for approving organic and paid social media content.
Ads ‘misleading’, ASA rules
The ASA upheld the complaints, concluding 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.
It stated that the ads must not appear again in the form complained of.
“We’re a small but mighty team. Mistakes are inevitable; this was one of them,” Simmy Dhillon told The Grocer.
While Dhillon took “full responsibility for the mistake”, he claimed the backlash he received following the posts was “completely disproportional”.
Dhillon claimed that Planthood founders Will Moxham and Hilary Kennedy took to LinkedIn to publicly accuse Simmer of engaging in “false advertising” before he had become aware of the issue and been able to remove them.
In the days after the posts had been shared on LinkedIn, “I received strongly worded DMs from fellow founders that weren’t remotely involved, as well as racist comments from faceless trolls”, Dhillon claimed.
“There was no ill intent on our end, and certainly no attempt to undermine or harm anyone else’s business,” he added.
The Grocer has approached Planthood for comment.
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