Takeaway delivery firm Deliveroo has hit out after one of its TV adverts was banned for misleading the public.
The ad shows a woman receiving an order at the door before jumping into bag and then distributing meals from various restaurants, including KFC, Burger King, Pizza Express and other chains.
The advert was one of the most-complained about of the year, with viewers saying it suggested they could order food from different restaurants to be delivered together. 300 people complained to the regulator.
The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) ordered Deliveroo not to broadcast the ad again and “take care not to misleadingly imply multiple meals could be delivered in a single order.”
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It also said Deliveroo should have made clear a separate delivery charge applies for each order. The watchdog said it was “unusual” to receive so many complaints.
But a Deliveroo spokesman told PA: “For the record, you can’t actually dive into your Deliveroo bag, however hungry you are.
“The advert is clearly fantastical in nature, including a woman diving into a Deliveroo bag.”
The company said it did not make claims about pricing, and that just 0.0006% of people had seen it complained.
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It also said the ad was intended to show the wide variety of restaurants and meal types available.
The ASA said in a ruling published on Wednesday: “The ad featured a scenario in which food ordered from different restaurants was delivered to the same household at the same time. We considered consumers would not assume that a separate delivery charge applied for each restaurant ordered from.
“While we acknowledged Deliveroo’s willingness to include additional on-screen text to clarify the nature of their service, we considered such text was unlikely to be sufficient to alter the overall impression that their customers could order food from different restaurants to be delivered together.
“The ad must not be broadcast again in its current form.”
