Anger as Doritos ad escapes ban

HeALTH campaigners claim controls on advertising designed to combat obesity are failing to protect children after an ad for Doritos was cleared.

A commercial for the high-calorie snack ran on a YouTube channel dedicated to the nintendo Switch computer game, which research has shown has a particular appeal to young boys.

It was seen by a child of eight and, in theory, this would appear to flout rules that ban firms from promoting products high in fat, sugar or salt around content which is likely to appeal to the under 16s.

However, the rule comes with a small print caveat that allows food giants, such as walkers Snacks, who make Doritos, to escape such controls by marketing through YouTube.

with TV programmes, there is good audience data to understand the age make-up of viewers which means it is possible to show what share is made up of under 16s.

However, there is no such breakdown with YouTube videos. walkers was able to show that less than 10 per cent of the global YouTube audience for all videos are under 16 and so it successfully argued the ban should not apply.