ASA Adjudication on Yum! Restaurants (UK) Ltd

Ad

A poster, for KFC chicken, featured a piece of breaded chicken drumstick and a drawing of a sofa, with a large yellow arrow pointing behind the sofa cushion. Text stated "New Spicy Zinger Chicken. To try it just find 50p". Smallprint at the bottom of the poster stated "New Spicy Zinger Chicken pieces are chicken on the bone. Limited to one piece per transaction with any bucket or meal. 'Meal' is defined as minimum of fries, drink (regular or large in each case) plus one of the following Burger, Twister or Bucket or any items listed on the Classics menu. Limited period only. Subject to availability ..."

Issue

Three customers complained that the ad was misleading because it did not make clear that a Spicy Zinger Chicken drumstick could not be bought for 50p unless a KFC meal or Bucket was purchased as well.  They believed the conditions attached to the offer were not sufficiently prominent.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

KFC said text at the bottom of the poster stated that the 50p offer was "limited to one piece per transaction with any bucket or meal".  They argued that the text was unambiguous and believed it was clear the 50p Spicy Zinger offer only applied when buying a bucket or meal.  They said the poster had clearly set out the terms.  They pointed out that the text had also explained the meaning of a "meal" in relation to the offer.   They said the conditions were printed in clear typeface, which they considered was big enough to read easily and were sufficiently prominent and unambiguous for a consumer to understand.  KFC said point of sale material in stores further explained to any customer, who had misunderstood the poster, the need to buy a bucket or meal in order to participate in the offer.  They said the poster had been displayed at approximately 7000 sites over a period of two weeks.   They mentioned that only three consumers had complained, and believed that showed the poster was not misleading.  

KFC explained that the offer had been for a limited period only and they did not intend to use the poster design again.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA considered that the claim "To try it just find 50p" gave the impression that the Spicy Zinger could be bought for "just" 50p, whereas it was only available for that price as an add-on to a full-priced bucket or meal.  We noted that text at the bottom of the poster had explained the conditions attached to the offer but considered that the text was too small, at 1 cm on an 180 cm poster, to explain the nature of the offer sufficiently clearly.  We considered that referring to the significant condition only in smallprint was likely to mislead consumers about the nature of the offer and, further, that the condition could be seen to contradict the impression created by the headline claim.  

The poster breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 34.1a (Significant conditions for promotions).

Action

We told KFC to state important conditions to promotions more prominently in future ads.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)