McDonald’s escapes slapdown over Big Mac ad

McDonald’s has escaped censure by the ASA after a radio ad for a Grand Big Mac Bacon was cleared by the advertising watchdog.

The ad, broadcast on Virgin Radio on 8 March, featured two men talking about their lunch.

One said he had a “packed lunch … with a cheeky little choccy bar”. The other said: “That looks tiny, have they made them smaller?” to which the first man replied: “Yeah, they used to be twice as big”. The other said: “You’ve been robbed, mate” before he said he had a “Grand Big Mac Bacon…a Big Mac only bigger, with added bacon”. The other man replied saying: “Nice” before a voice-over said “Don’t go big, go grand. It’s a Big Mac, only grander”.

A single complaint was made about the ad, which said the ad was “likely to condone or encourage poor nutritional habits or excessive consumption of a food.”

But McDonald’s said the ad focused on the “quality and taste” of the burger rather than the larger size of the product, including the phrase ‘Don’t go big, go grand’, which it said referred to the improvement in taste.

It also said by comparing the Grand Big Mac Bacon to a chocolate bar, another high fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) product, the ad did not imply the product was a “snack that should be consumed regularly or excessively”.

It also said the Grand Big Mac Bacon contained 777 calories, or 39% of the recommended intake of calories, so could be enjoyed as a “treat as part of a balanced diet”.

Additionally, although we noted the scene depicted in the ad was lunch – an everyday meal – we considered that there was nothing overt or implicit in the ad advocating.

The ASA decided the ad did play on the fact the Grand Big Mac Bacon was large, but it cleared the ad after deciding that the emphasis on size “did not in itself encourage excessive consumption of a food” or “encourage poor nutritional habits”.