Media buying platform The Trade Desk – which partners with the likes of Ocado, Lidl and Kellanova – has been rapped by the ASA for featuring an HFSS product within one of its ads.
The Trade Desk doesn’t sell food, but used imagery of a two-pack of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups within a LinkedIn ad. The image was used as “illustrative content of The Trade Desk’s capabilities and client base”, the company said in its defence.
The media tech company also said while it had provided a copy of the ad to The Hershey Company before publication, the ad was “created and placed entirely at The Trade Desk’s own expense and initiative”. It also argued that its ad carried “no call to action encouraging purchase or consumption of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, nor any information about where to buy the product”.
But the ASA ruled that while guidance states that ads by businesses not directly involved in the supply of food or drink would be “highly unlikely to be subject to the rules”, advertising considered “a joint ad” with a business that does is “more likely to fall in scope”.
The authority also said that while the ad was targeted to “UK advertising, marketing and public relations professionals” who would “reasonably be expected to identify the ad as being for The Trade Desk” it nevertheless promoted the confectionery product “positively”.
As such, the ASA concluded “that the ad was a paid ad for identifiable ‘less healthy’ foods, and therefore breached the Code”.
The ASA ruled the ad must not appear again in the form complained of.
New rules around the advertising of HFSS products online came into effect in January. The flagship piece of legislation was spearheaded by the Department of Health and aims to halve childhood obesity by 2030 and significantly reduce the gap in obesity between children from the most and least deprived areas by 2030.
The rules cover less healthy food and drink advertising on TV, online and social media.
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