Ad description
Two in-game pop-up ads, seen in February 2018, promoted Lay Matures, a dating service.
a. The first ad, which appeared within the apps Jewels Legend and Jewel Star 3, included an image of a woman sitting on a bed, alongside text which stated, "Lay Matures ... MATURE WOMEN WHO ALWAYS SAY YES ... FIND WOMEN".
b. The second ad, which appeared within the app Strike Galaxy Attack Fighters, included same text, alongside an image of a woman sitting astride a bannister.
Issue
Two complainants challenged whether the ads had been irresponsibly placed in an untargeted medium which was inappropriate for their audience.
Response
Bulova Invest Ltd t/a LayMatures did not respond to the ASA’s enquiries.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by LayMatures’ lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 1.7 Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code. (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to provide a response to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
We understood that the Jewels Legend and Jewel Star 3 apps were games where players had to match identical jewels, and were rated as PEGI 3, meaning the content of the apps was considered suitable for all age groups. Strike Galaxy Attack Fighters was a top–down air combat shooting game rated as ‘12+’. We considered that, given the content of the apps, they were likely to have a broad appeal to all ages including children. Any ads, therefore, that appeared within these apps should have been suitable for children.
We were concerned that ads for an adult dating service that used wording such as "Lay Matures" and "WOMEN WHO ALWAYS SAY YES" had not been flagged as appropriate only for adult audiences, and considered that the combination of the images with that wording meant that the ads were not appropriate to be seen by children. Because the ads had been placed in apps that children could be using, we concluded that they had been placed irresponsibly, in breach of the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.3 1.3 Marketing communications must be prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society. (Social responsibility).
Action
The ad must not appear again in an untargeted medium. We told Bulova Invest Ltd to ensure that ads that were inappropriate for children to see were appropriately targeted. We referred the matter to the CAP Compliance team.
