Fast food ad gave negative kids signal

The Authority said a number of adverts that were run by the Just Eat company in the Republic of Ireland, breached the requirements of the southern advertising code, by giving a negative message to children in relation to the preparation of food at home.

The same company also allows people to book fast-food dinners from a range of Londonderry take-aways.

The advert in question was a poster campaign in the Republic that featured the slogan “BURN ALL COOK BOOKS! THE MOZZ.”

According to the ASAI the poster featured “a chef wearing full chef’s uniform, he had his teeth clenched and was holding a cooking utensil in his hands.

“The message at the bottom of the poster read ‘Don’t cook. JUSTEAT.IE. ORDER FROM DELIVERY RESTAURANTS ONLINE.’”

An accompanying blog by Just Eat stated: “The tyranny of home cooking has gone on for too long. Mozz and the boys have had enough: they’ve packed their pots and put on their travelling aprons to spread the JUST EAT word!

“Cooking is burnt fingers; cooking is complicated recipes you need a PhD in Advanced Foodolgy to understand; cooking is celeb chef endorsed gadgets you buy and never use; cooking is hours in the kitchen to end up with mush that looks nothing like the recipe photo (and probably tastes like the paper the recipe was printed on).”

The ASAI said it received two complaints about the campaign.

“One complainant said that in the current context of rising obesity and generally unhealthy eating behaviours he found the advert troublesome.

“More particularly he said that notwithstanding any intended humour, any advertising promoting the burning of books was unacceptable,” the authority stated.

“The second complainant said that it had been proven that takeaway food was predominantly aimed at teenagers and lower income bracket households.

“She found the campaign to be aggressively manipulative in encouraging the public not to cook but to order takeaway food instead,” it continued.

Just Eat said its campaign was not “aggressively manipulative since the majority of people ordered takeaway food as an occasional treat.”

It said it was “designed to inform consumers that they should not feel under pressure to cook every day and it was acceptable to order a takeaway. Ultimately they said the decision on what to eat was up to each individual.”

The company also said it was unfair to assume that all takeaway food was unhealthy and that supermarkets also provided a range of food “some of which was healthy and some which were not; again the choice of what to eat was up to the consumer.”

But the ASAI said that the “main message contained within the advertising was that cooking at home was a chore.”

The authority said that if this was the premise upon which the advertisers based their campaign “they should be able to prove that the premise was a valid one.”

“The Committee also considered that in inviting consumers to ‘burn all cook books’ and order take away food instead, the advertisers were giving a negative message to children in relation to the preparation of food at home.

“The Committee found this aspect of the advertising not to be in compliance with the requirements of the Code,” it stated.

The authority ruled that Just Eat must not run the adverts in the same format again.

A complaint that a separate Just Eat advert featuring the slogan ‘ REAL MEN DON’T COOK – THE MOZZ” was sexist and “could have a negative impact on men and may stop them from developing their cooking skills,” was not upheld.

The ASAI Complaints Committee said the advertising had been “very much tongue in cheek and the message contained within had not been designed to be interpreted literally or have the outcome suggested by the complainant.”