ASA bans in-app advertisements of Tombola

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) of Britain has banned in-app advertisements of plc in the I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here app.

ASA found that the advertisements were inappropriately targeted. The agency ruled that the advertisements against which complaints had been filed should not be used again without making specific changes to minimise the likelihood of under-18s being exposed to them.

The company argued that content was part of a wider sponsorship package, with various checks having been undertaken to ascertain view age profiles, to ensure that their sponsorship was appropriate and would reach a desired market of adults 18 and over.

The company stated: “If users tried to download the tombola arcade app they could see the app was tagged with an adult age gate, and there were stringent checks in place which prevented under-18s from registering”.

ASA concluded: “We understood that all ads were displayed to all users of the app; there were no mechanisms built into the app to target ads towards, or direct them away from, certain groups of users.”

“In the context of an app that was likely to be used by under-18s, but which did not have a mechanism through which age-restricted ads could be targeted only to the appropriate age group, we considered tombola arcade should not have used the app to deliver gambling ads to consumers.”

“We therefore considered the advertiser had not taken sufficient care, through the selection of media, to ensure that the ads were directed at an audience aged 18 and over so as to minimise under-18s’ exposure to them. We concluded the ads breached the code.”