McDonalds Fried Over Chips Claim
The ASA has upheld complaints against a magazine ad for fast food giant McDonalds over claims their french fries are made entirely of potato.
The ad depicted a potato in a fries box and the strap line “The Story Of Our Fries. End Of Story.” The ad went on to claim that McDonalds picks special types of potato and adds nothing to them in the making of its fries.
Members of the public and the Food Commission objected to the ad and its claim “we peel them, slice them, fry them and that’s it”.
One complainant objected on the grounds the fries are flash fried in beef tallow, frozen while partially cooked, flown around the world and then re-deep fried.
Another member of the public and the Food Commission claimed that significant amounts of salt are added, which has health implications. It was also alleged that the fries contain gluten from other products because of cross-over in cooking oil and a sugar solution is added at certain times of the year.
The advertisers argued that the ad was intended to explain to consumers that their fries were made from real, not reconstituted, potato and to focus on the simplicity of their fries. They pointed out that the copy was not intended to be a literal and comprehensive statement of all the processes involved.
The Authority was satisfied that the advertisers’ fries did not contain gluten from cross-cooking and that the advertisers did not use beef tallow.
However it concluded that because the advertisement contained claims such as “End of story” and “…and that’s it” most people would understand that it described the complete process of how McDonalds produced their fries.
Because material parts of that process were omitted from the advertisement, the Authority concluded that the advertisement was misleading and told the advertisers not to repeat the approach.
This is not the first time that McDonalds has come under fire for misleading consumers. The fast food giant has also come under increasing pressure from consumer groups in the wake of a damning report from the Food Commission which claimed that the £15 billion spent globally on advertising fast food to children is putting their health at risk (see Advertisers Charged With Endangering Children’s Health).
ASA: 020 7580 5555 www.asa.org.uk
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