The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint against Lindar Media’s MrQ.com for an advertisement that appealed strongly to children.
Seen on December 23, 2023, MrQ had a paid-for Facebook ad which featured text stating “[Santa emoji] Deposit £20 and get 75 Free Spins [Present emoji]”, as well as an image below the text of a cartoon Santa driving a snow plough underneath the “BIG BASS Christmas BASH” game logo.
The same Santa was seen in a secondary image, driving a vehicle next to an elf holding a colourful Bazooka.
The ASA noted that the complainant challenged whether the ad breached the code as they “believed the cartoon imagery of Santa and the elf was likely to appeal strongly to children”.
MrQ noted that while the advert’s image could be deemed as “likely to appeal strongly to children”, they specifically targeted people aged over 25 and did not believe that anyone under 25 had seen the ad.
As a result, the operator believes the targeted ad was kept away from children and young people and that they had acted in a socially responsible way.
In addition, MrQ referred to CAP guidance on “Gambling and lotteries: Protecting under-18s” regarding targeted ads to effectively remove under-18s from the audience to feature content otherwise prohibited. Guidance from the IGRG (Industry Group for Responsible Gambling) Industry Code for Socially Responsible Advertising was also taken into consideration.
The operator stated that it has since amended its Facebook marketing approach, in particular regarding imagery that could have a strong appeal to children. The advert in question had been withdrawn and Facebook did not have any comments in relation to the complaint.
In response, the ASA has stated that “Christmas and the traditions surrounding it were likely to have strong appeal to children”, and mentioned that CAP guidance considered Santa to be a “high risk” in the character’s appeal to under-18s, in addition to the Christmas elf and colourful cartoons.
For those reasons, the authority considered the ad was likely to be of strong appeal to children.
“We considered that it would have been acceptable for the ad to appear in a medium where under-18s, for all intents and purposes, could be entirely excluded from the audience,” the ASA stated.
“That would apply in circumstances where those who saw the ad had been robustly age-verified as being 18 or older, such as through marketing lists that had been validated by payment data or credit checking.
“However, because Facebook was a media environment where users self-verified on customer sign-up and did not use robust age-verification, we considered MrQ.com had not excluded under-18s from the audience with the highest level of accuracy required for gambling ads where their content was likely to appeal strongly to under-18s.”
The ASA added that it acknowledged MrQ had taken steps in response to the complaint, but has “nevertheless concluded that the ad was irresponsible and breached the code”, specifically CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 16.1 and 16.3.12 (Gambling).
In conclusion, the authority has stated that the advert “must not appear again in the form complained of” and that Lindar Media/MrQ have been told “not to include themes or imagery that were likely to have strong appeal to those under 18” in future ads.
