Two ads by KP Snacks tying in with cricket tournament The Hundred have been censured by the ad watchdog for promoting HFSS snacks to under-16s.
The Children’s Food Campaign and health campaign group Food Active complained to the watchdog, alleging that KP, in partnership with the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB), had targeted marketing activities including emails, a website for its campaign and a raft of paid-for and non paid-for social media ads from brands including Butterkist, McCoy’s, KP Nuts and Hula Hoops, at under-16s.
KP and the ECB said email ads were sent to “individuals on ECB’s database, which had been collated from ticket buyers, and individuals who had not bought tickets but who had opted in to receive general marketing from ECB”.
The ECB had “targeted those email addresses, which were categorised as ‘family category’,” said the ASA. “That category comprised individuals over the age of 18 who had purchased an under-16 ticket for an ECB event, and those individuals who had indicated within data capture that they had an under-16 within their household.”
Of those, 1.3%, or 326 of 29,276, communications were sent to email addresses that were identified as belonging to people aged 16 or under, it added.
The watchdog ruled the 326 emails had been “directed at children through the selection of media in which it appeared, and therefore breached the [CAP] code”.
However, it ruled that the sponsorship campaign’s website, www.everyonein.co.uk, which hosted a competition linked to by paid-for and non paid-for ads from individual KP brand accounts, had not broken the code because “while the imagery and format used would have appealed to those under 16, it would not have appealed to them more than those over 16”, the ASA said.
“We also considered that the language used across the website, and its overall presentation, were not particularly aimed at those under 16.”
Of the non paid-for and paid-for ads linking to the website, only one, a paid-for Butterkist ad offering a chance to win tickets to see the Birmingham Phoenix team, had broken the code, the watchdog ruled, because it had “not used any interest-based factors to exclude groups of people more likely to be under 16 from the target audience for ad”.
All the others were let off the hook by the ASA. It had “noted that less than 25% of Pom-Bear, McCoy’s and Butterkist’s followers were registered as under 18 on Instagram – comprising 3%, 8% and 8%” for their ads respectively, it said. “We also noted that reach and engagement for each post among those registered as under 18 was well below 25% – comprising 3%, 8% and 14%.”
In the case of the paid ads, barring the Butterkist ad that was censured, “we noted that KP Snacks had used age-based factors to target the ads, and some limited interest and geography-based factors”, it said.
The ASA told KP and the ECB the email and Butterkist paid ads must not appear again in the form complained of.
A KP spokeswoman said the business recognised “that as a responsible food manufacturer we have an important role to play in helping people make informed choices and enjoy our products responsibly”.
“Our partnership with The Hundred enables us to introduce the game to new audiences and the Everyone In campaign is based around inspiring more people to get active through the power of cricket, whether that be through free kit and equipment, access to inspirational matches or exciting challenges,” she added.
“We welcome today’s ASA ruling and we will be working closely with the ECB to take on board the recommendations.”
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