Brands that target children have been warned not to attempt to hoodwink kids into thinking their ads are editorial content after banning four campaigns this week, despite them all being flagged up as advertisements.
The ads in question, for Capri Sun, Churchill Road Safety Hub and two for VIP Pets toys, all appeared on the Nickelodeon website, nickjr.co.uk, in February this year. All four featured white text with the word “advertisement” in the top-right corner.
However, they were all positioned between Nickelodeon game tiles, all of which were formatted identically to the ads in the same size, with a black banner containing white bold text and gaming controller icon.
Acting on its own initiative, the Advertising Standards Authority launched an inquiry into the four ads, citing the CAP Code which states marketing must be obviously identifiable as such, and must make clear its commercial intent, if that was not clear from the context.
CAP notes that younger children pose a particular challenge to marketers, as cognitive development is in its early stages, meaning they sometimes could not recognise more integrated online marketing communications.
The guidance identifies situations where ads directed at under-12s are likely to require so-called ‘enhanced’ recognition disclosure; namely, where it was directed at under 12s; highly immersive; or significantly integrated into the surrounding editorial content and unlikely to be identified clearly from the context in which it appeared.
CAP maintains that display advertising that looks as though it is part of the surrounding content, or which might be confused with editorial of first-party content, is likely to require further disclosure. Such disclosure should be prominent, interruptive, and sufficient to identify the marketer and the commercial intent of the ad.
However, in all four cases the ASA ruled that the ad was significantly, visually integrated into the surrounding content and the formatting of the tile contributed to it being less identifiably separate from the surrounding editorial content.
Its ruling stated: “Given the high level of integration due to the formatting, we considered that it would be highly unlikely that very young children would be able to identify the content as an ad from the context in which it appeared.
“We acknowledged that an ad disclosure label “advertisement” had been used within the tile. Whilst the label text was in capitals, we considered that the size of the font and the box itself was not particularly prominent. Also, the use of a colour palette for the label that matched and blended with the overall ad colours did not make the disclosure sufficiently prominent or interruptive enough for younger children to realise, at the point at which they were engaging with the content, that it was distinct from the non-advertising content around it.”
Banning all four campaigns from running in their current form, the watchdog issued a warning that firms must ensure ads are obviously identifiable to their audience, and urged them to use ‘enhanced’ disclosure where required.
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