Swizzels Matlow breaches advertising code

Swizzels Matlow has been forced to remove sections of its website as it breaches advertising code.

The Children’s Food Campaign complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about the confectionery manufacturer’s website, stating that it is specifically designed to appeal to children in order to present the sweets in a positive light and to influence children’s consumption preferences and choices. The Children’s Food Campaign believe children who visit this website and interact with the many child friendly elements (animations, games, videos, downloads) showcasing the different sweets Swizzels Matlow produce will be more likely to eat these sweets, and do so more frequently and in a greater amount. Thus the website encourages poor nutritional habits in children.

ASA found that the majority of the website did not promote sweet consumption. However, a game, called Cola Capers, encouraged users to collect almost one hundred cola bottles in different rooms in a factory without being caught by ‘angry parents’.

The ASA concluded that this game irresponsibly encouraged poor nutritional habits and an unhealthy lifestyle in children because it condoned eating a large number of sweets whilst hiding the fact from their parents. ASA ruled that this part of the website must be amended or withdrawn.

Furthermore, one of the pages on the Swizzels Matlow site promotes Scooby-Doo themed sweets. The promotion of food products using licensed characters to directly target pre-school or primary school children is not allowed under the code. The Children’s Food Campaign believe the Swizzels Town website clearly targets this age group and thus no references to the Scooby-Doo sweets should be made on the website.

The ASA ruled that the website breached the code and that the section must be amended or withdrawn.