Who: Bestway Retail Ltd and The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)
Where: United Kingdom
When: 19 March 2025
Law stated as at: 11 April 2025
What happened:
On 3 December 2024, paid for ads for Bargain Booze appeared on social media.
The ads had a festive theme including images of Santa visiting a bargain booze shop. Santa arrived in a red car, entered the shop and used a tablet app to match alcohol products to customers, deciding if they were naughty or nice.
He then magically gift wrapped a bottle for a woman and changed a man’s status from “naughty” to “nice” after he had returned a dropped purse to a fellow customer. Santa bought the chosen alcohol without needing a plastic bag, using his Santa sack instead. The ad concluded with the text “GIVING IS BETTER THAN RECEIVING” and “MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM Bargain Booze”.
The ASA examined whether the use of Santa in the ads would likely appeal to people under 18 years of age.
The UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing (CAP Code) mandates that marketing communications, especially ads that are for alcohol, must not appeal particularly to people under the age of 18. The ASA acknowledged that Father Christmas appeals to all ages, but noted that Christmas traditions are likely to appeal to children. The ads featured nostalgic elements like Father Christmas, festive music and magical occurrences, which are reminiscent of classic Christmas family films and would appeal to children. Humorous elements, such as Father Christmas arriving in a red car, festive wordplays and using contactless payment further contributed to the appeal to children.
Although the ads targeted users aged 18 or over, the social media platforms did not use robust age-verification methods and interest-based targeting was not employed to prevent under 18s seeing them. Consequently, under 18s were not entirely excluded from the audience. The ASA concluded that the ads had particular appeal to under 18s and were therefore irresponsible, breaching the CAP Code. As such, the ASA upheld the decision against Betway Retail Ltd and ordered that the ads should not appear again in this form. The ASA also reminded Betway Retail that its ads for alcohol should not have particular appeal to under 18s.
Why this matters:
This article is important for businesses looking to capitalise on key marketing opportunities centred around certain times of the year to market their products. Many of the key events throughout the year, such as Easter, Halloween and Christmas, all have strong connections to children and under 18s. As such, businesses need to ensure that when using key characters associated with these key events, such as Santa, to advertise age restricted products they make clear that the context cannot appeal to children.
