Burnham faces health lobby fury over ad ban 'failings'

Prime Minister in waiting Andy Burnham is facing a major challenge from health campaigners over the less healthy food and drink ad restrictions amid increasing anger that complaints about campaigns by Domino’s, KFC, Burger King, Uber Eats and Papa Johns have been dismissed.

Sustain, the UK’s alliance for better food and farming, which acts as a network of over 100 public interest organisations, branded the decisions “inevitable”, claiming they are a direct consequence of fierce lobbying from food and drink giants. It is urging the Government to “tighten up the policy now”.

Back in March, the Government launched a new consultation to bring a larger portion of brands under the LHF rules, and pressure is likely to grow for ministers to crack on.

The rules, which came into force at the beginning of this year, ban ads for identifiable less healthy food products from appearing on TV or on-demand services between 5.30am and 9pm, or in paid online media at any time.

In this week’s rulings, the Advertising Standards Authority cleared two ads for a Domino’s “Vegi Supreme” pizza, finding that it did not fall within the classification of a less healthy product and was visually different from the less healthy pizzas sold by the brand.

The watchdog also waved through TV, video on demand and three social media ads for KFC, finding they did not break the rules because the featured burgers, chicken pieces and soft drinks were either not classified as “less healthy” or were visually different from specific less healthy menu items.

Meanwhile, a Facebook ad for Papa John’s showing a promotional offer and an image of a vegetable pizza did not break the new rules either, because the product was not classified as “less healthy” and was visually different from the less healthy pizzas sold by the firm.

And, finally, a video on demand ad for Uber Eats showing a Burger King Whopper alongside Uber Eats and Burger King branding was cleared to continue screening because the burger shown was not classified as “less healthy” and was visually different from other less healthy Burger King products.

Even so, a paid-for Instagram ad for fast food restaurant Morley’s Woking promoting two meal deals featuring burgers, wings, nuggets, fries and drinks was banned because it “clearly identified multiple specific products that were classified as less healthy”.

And a paid-for Instagram ad for M&M’s featuring two cartoon-style M&M’s, was also banned because one of characters depicted a specific “less healthy” product – in this case peanut M&M’s – rather than just the brand.

ASA chief executive Guy Parker said: “Our job is to apply the new LHF rules, which mirror the law, accurately, fairly and consistently. These rulings provide clarity on how the ‘brand exemption’ aspect of the rules applies in practice.

“They also show that less healthy products can be hard to spot. Some specific products that people understandably assume are less healthy are not in fact classified as less healthy under the Government’s Nutrient Profile Model.

“That might sometimes be because food businesses have reformulated them to bring them below the less healthy threshold.”

However, Sustain commercial determinants co-ordinator Fran Bernhardt told The Grocer: “These failures to regulate unhealthy food advertising are the direct, inevitable consequence of the Government’s decision to bow to industry pressure.

“The standards still allow companies to advertise deals which include unhealthy foods. The Government must protect children from all unhealthy food advertising by tightening up the policy now.”

Burnham faces health lobby fury over ad ban ‘failings’

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