Morrisons slapped on wrists for ‘irresponsible’ ad

A complaint against an advertisement for UK supermarket Morrisons promoting its spirits collection during children’s nursery rhymes on YouTube has been upheld.

Morrisons has been slapped on the wrist by the ASA for an advert promoting its spirits range broadcast online during children’s nursery rhymes

Regulatory body the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) received a complaint against the ad, which was shown during a series of children’s nursery rhyme songs on YouTube.

The complainant suggest that it was “irresponsible” to broadcast the ad during a video that was targeted at young children.

In defence, Morrisons said that the ad had been cleared by Clearcast as it was also to be broadcast on television, but that the restrictions applied by Clearcast had not been adhered to by the third party organisation responsible for placing the ad online.

Morrisons also said that according to YouTube, the website had mechanisms in place that should prevent alcohol content from being shown during content that was family-friendly,

However, YouTube did not recommend that users should log in with an account that declared they were over 18 years of age if they were watching YouTube with a minor.

The ASA therefore upheld the original complaint despite Morrisons and YouTube implementing correct processes as it claimed that the nursery rhyme video in question was “very unlikely to be viewed by an adult unless they were watching with a minor”.

“We concluded that although Morrisons had taken all reasonable steps to ensure that the ad was targeted responsibly, it had not been targeted responsibly and therefore the ad breached the Code,” said the ASA.

Morrisons have therefore been told to ensure their ads were appropriately targeted in future.