UK Agency Upholds Complaint Targeting Weetabix App

The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint
lodged by the Family and Parenting Institute (FPI) against Weetabix Ltd.’s
product-branded app, concluding that the “WeetaKid” game, which prompted
players to scan QR codes during game-play, “was persuasive and negative, and could lead children to understand that if they did not eat Weetabix they were failing in some way.” Focusing on several online games created by
Weetabix, FPI apparently challenged whether (i) the WeetaKid app “exploited
the credulity, loyalty, vulnerability or lack of experience of children by making
them feel inferior or unpopular for not buying a product”; (ii) the WeetaKid
app “included a direct exhortation to children to buy an advertised product”;
(iii) advergames “on the Weetos and Nickelodeon websites were obviously
identifiable as marketing communications”; and (iv) some of the advergames
“advertised Weetos Bars, which would be classified as a product high in fat,
salt or sugar (HFSS), and therefore condoned or encouraged poor nutritional
habits or an unhealthy lifestyle in children.”

Although ASA dismissed the other three complaints after reviewing Weetabix’s response to the allegations, the agency ultimately agreed with FPI that the WeetaKid app failed to adequately distinguish between “the WeetaKid ‘world’ as a whole” and actions that children might take in the real world. In particular, ASA took issue with “the language and tone” of prompts such as “What?! No Weetabix?! Why make things harder for yourself?” and “Tired is not a good look for you. Why not eat something?,” partly because it was unclear whether such exhortations were directed at the in-game character or the player. The agency also faulted the app for giving players the impression that scanning product QR codes to “re-energize” the character at the outset of the game would result in better performance, even though this was not actually the case.

“We considered it likely that children would understand that scanning the QR code on a Weetabix pack would improve WeetaKid’s performance in the games, and if they had not done so they would miss out on part of the functionality of the app and would not be able to do as well in the game as they otherwise would,” stated ASA. “We therefore considered it likely that children would ask their parents to purchase Weetabix in order that they could scan the QR code, and we were concerned that the frequency with which the prompts appeared would be likely to prompt children to ask their parents to purchase Weetabix on a frequent basis.”

Based on these considerations, ASA ruled that the WeetaKid app breached
CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 5.2 and 5.2.1 (Credulity and Unfair Pressure)
by allegedly exploiting “children’s credulity and vulnerability” and making
them “feel inferior if they did not eat, buy or encourage their parents to buy
Weetabix.” See ASA Decision, February 13, 2013.