The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has published six new rulings under the new healthy food and drink regulations.

The new regulations ban ads for “less healthy” food items from appearing on on-demand and TV between 5.30am and 9pm or in paid online media at any time. According to the government these regulations are aimed to reduce children’s exposure to less healthy food products.

It upheld a ruling against Morley’s Woking for a paid-for Instagram ad promoting two meal deals which featured burgers, nuggets, wings and drinks. According to the regulator, the marketing drive was banned as it “clearly” displayed multiple items that were classified as less healthy.

The watchdog also banned a paid-for Instagram ad for M&M’s. The advert contained two cartoon M&M’s, one green and round and the other yellow and oval. It was banned because ASA ruled that the yellow figure depicted a less healthy product, rather than just the brand.

However, the regulator did not uphold a ruling against Domino’s. The fast food outlet had launched two paid-for social media ads for its Vegi Supreme Pizza, which isn’t classed as a less healthy food item.

Guy Parker, ASA chief executive, said: “Our job is to apply the new LHF rules, which mirror the law, accurately, fairly and consistently. Today’s rulings provide clarity on how the ‘brand exemption’ aspect of the rules applies in practice. They also show that less healthy products can be hard to spot. Some specific products that people understandably assume are less healthy, are not in fact classified as less healthy under the Government’s Nutrient Profile Model.

The ASA also did not uphold a ruling against KFC for a TV ad, a on-demand ad and three paid-for social media ads featuring burgers, chicken pieces and soft drinks because the products shown were either not classified as less healthy or were visually different from less healthy menu items.

According to the body, it also did not uphold rulings against Papa Johns and Uber Eats for a promotional pizza offer and image of a vegetable pizza and a video-on-demand ad highlighting a Burger King Whopper respectively.

The burger and pizza’s shown in the ads weren’t classified as less healthy, according to the regulator.

Parker added: “That might sometimes be because food businesses have reformulated them to bring them below the less healthy threshold. It’s worth mentioning that Government has been clear that it wants the restrictions to incentivise food businesses to do exactly that: reformulate their products so they are no longer classified as less healthy.”

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