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Diageo, the alcohol giant whose brands include Johnnie Walker and Captain Morgan, is pulling its ad campaigns from Snapchat after one of its ads was found to be shown to users under the legal drinking age, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Diageo ran a sponsored filter campaign last year in which users could overlay the Captain Morgan mascot on themselves in their snaps. While Diageo directed the ads at Snapchat users older than 18, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) — the UK’s ad watchdog — claimed Diageo’s ads were “inappropriately targeted,” because some users falsely self-report their age when they register for an account.
Diageo’s decision to halt its advertising on Snapchat highlights two issues tied to age targeting on the platform:
- It calls to question the adequacy of self-reported ages on Snapchat. Snapchat requires users to be 13 years old to sign up for the app, but a survey by UK communications regulatory Ofcom found that 34% of social media users aged 8-11 were on Snapchat, per The Wall Street Journal. This statistic implies that a great deal of UK children are lying about their ages to bypass Snapchat’s age restriction, and that Snapchat’s data, which indicated that 77% of UK Snapchat users were 18 or older, may not paint an accurate picture of its user demographics. In effect, some brands’ ads might not be delivered to their targeted audiences, particularly if they're aiming to appeal to an older demographc.
- Snapchat's messaging nature means certain ads are shown to unintended audiences. Even if Snapchat could verify that all of its alcohol ads are served to users over 18, adult users can still send messages featuring inappropriate content to their underage friends, for example. And given that more than 3.5 billion snaps are taken per day, the chances of such messages being sent are high. This is one reason other alcohol brands have also been hesitant to advertise on Snapchat — Heineken chose not to advertise on the platform because it was concerned the platform’s age filtering was too weak.
However, Snapchat has been focused on improving its targeting capabilities, largely in an effort to measure up to those of Facebook and Google. For example, the company rolled out audience filters, which let brands target users based on criteria like location and interest, in November. Besides alcohol companies, a variety of industries, including automotive and credit, would benefit from improved age restriction capabilities on Snapchat, as these types of companies are likely targeting older users as well.
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