ASA Adjudication on Burger King Ltd

Ad

A TV ad for the new "Smokey Blue Angus" from Burger King stated "100% flame grilled certified Aberdeen Angus beef with applewood smoked bacon and creamy blue cheese flavoured mayo. A posh burger for people who aren't posh". On-screen text stated "Limited Time. Subject to Availability. Angus and Angus Cross. Blue Cheese flavoured mayonnaise".

Issue

A viewer challenged whether the claim "100% flame grilled certified Aberdeen Angus beef" was misleading because he believed it was contradicted by the super imposed text that stated "Angus and Angus Cross" and therefore exaggerated the quality of the beef used in the burgers. Another viewer believed the ad implied the burgers were made from premium Scottish beef.

BCAP TV Code

Response

Burger King said they believed the complaint was unfounded. They said all of their Angus beef products were certified by the Aberdeen Angus Cattle Society (AACS) and they attached a letter from the Chief Executive of the AACS that confirmed the society believed Burger King's claim "100% Flame-grilled Certified Aberdeen Angus Beef" to be correct. The AACS explained, on Burger King's behalf, that the minimum industry accepted definition of "Aberdeen Angus beef" was that it should be sired by a pedigree registered Aberdeen Angus bull (certified or eligible to be certified by the Aberdeen Angus Cattle Society). The AACS further explained that, within the commercial beef industry, Aberdeen Angus bulls were bred with cross-bred cows and that the beef cattle resulting were eligible to be labelled "Aberdeen Angus" so long as the bull was registered and certified as a pedigree.

Burger King said that they had been careful to ensure that the appropriate superscript "Angus and Angus Cross" was visible on all their advertising to provide customers with complete transparency about the provenance of their beef. They said the qualifying statement "Angus and Angus Cross" served the dual purpose of flagging up that "Certified Aberdeen Angus Beef" had a technical meaning and explaining in simple terms what that meaning was. They said "Certified Aberdeen Angus beef" was legally made up of "Angus and Angus Cross" pedigree cattle.

The ACCS further clarified that there was a proportion of pure bred Aberdeen Angus beef on the market, where both sire and dam were certified pedigree, but the quantity of this was very small and these cattle were above the minimum industry accepted definition of "Aberdeen Angus beef".

The BACC said they agreed with the advertiser's response.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA noted the beef which Burger King used in their "Smokey Blue Angus" burgers could be described as "Aberdeen Angus beef", because it came from cattle sired by bulls certified as pedigree by the Aberdeen Angus Cattle Society. We noted this was accepted as the minimum industry standard. We considered that the on-screen text "Angus and Angus Cross" made clear that the beef was not double pedigree Aberdeen Angus beef, and concluded that the ad did not exaggerate the quality of the beef used in the burgers or imply that they were made from premium Scottish beef.

We investigated under CAP (Broadcast)TV Advertising Code rules 5.1 (Misleading advertising) 5.21 (Evidence) and 5.4.2 (Superimposed text) but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)