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Last week, the Children's Advertising Review Unit (or "CARU") announced a decision involving MrBeastYouTube and its affiliate Feastables. The decision covers a range of issues that frequently come up for companies that market to children, including advertising, sweepstakes, and privacy issues. Here's an overview of some of the key points.
- Ads Weren't Clearly Labeled: CARU found several MrBeast videos on YouTube in which the video descriptions and pinned comments included advertising content. None of that content was labeled as an ad and wasn't otherwise identifiable as an ad to children, as required by CARU's Advertising Guidelines. CARU recommended that ads be labeled as such.
- Misleading Ads: MrBeast posted a video announcing Feastables chocolate bars that featured a blind taste test between the bars and "top European chocolates" in which all tasters preferred the Feastables bars. The test was staged. Although MrBeast argued the test wasn't intended to be taken seriously, CARU concluded that children would likely interpret the test to be real and, therefore, that it was misleading.
- Sweepstakes Disclosures: MrBeast ran two sweepstakes in which consumers could win prizes by purchasingFeastables bars. CARU determined that the sweepstakes didn't comply with CARU's Advertising Guidelines for a few reasons. Among other things, the ads didn't clearly disclose the free method of entry, age requirements, or likelihood of winning in language kids would understand. Moreover, CARU thought the ads promoted the overconsumption of chocolate bars.
- Privacy Issues: CARU determined that the sweepstakes websites didn't comply with CARU's Privacy Guidelines—and potentially with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (or "COPPA")—for a few reasons. Among other things, the sites failed to include a neutral age-screening mechanism to ensure the company didn't collect personally identifiable information from children under 13 without first obtaining verifiable parental consent.
When advertising to children, it's important to keep CARU's Advertising Guidelines in mind. They start with the premise that because children lack the same abilities that most adults have to evaluate ads, advertisers have special responsibilities to ensure that children aren't misled.
Advertisers also need to remember that CARU's Privacy Guidelines—as well as COPPA and other laws—also impose unique requirements when collecting and processing personal information from minors. For more updates on children's privacy issues, click here.
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