Watchdog backs ‘healthy’ McDonald’s Happy Meal ad on children’s TV

[Northerner]

The UK advertising watchdog has ruled that McDonald’s Happy Meals can be advertised during children’s TV shows because they are “healthy”, but banned ads for KFC and Kellogg’s Coco Pops for promoting junk food to young people.

McDonald’s has strived to improve the nutritional value of Happy Meals by making cheeseburgers available only on request, reducing the serving size of fries that come with Chicken McNuggets and cutting the sugar in chocolate milk, but health campaigners still see the home of the Big Mac as the frontline in the fight against junk food advertising.

The Advertising Standards Authority dismissed a complaint that a Pokémon-themed Happy Meal ad, which featured products including Chicken McNuggets, should not have been allowed to run between episodes of Peppa Pig.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/aug/08/mcdonalds-happy-meal-healthy-advert-children-asa

 

[mikeyB]

Who complained? I can see possible objections to showing Richmond Sausage ads in the middle of Peppa Pig, but not chicken McNuggets.

 

[HOBIE]

Its in the right direction 😎

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

What confuses me is that one of the upheld complaints was about an advertisement on a bus shelter near a school.

The bus shelter near the secondary school close to us has a McFlurry advert on it for most weeks in the year!