McDONALD'S RAPPED FOR "SIMPLE FRIES" CAMPAIGN

[AussieMark]

McDonald's Rapped for 'Simple Fries' Campaign

LONDON (Reuters) - Fast food corporation McDonald's has been rapped by British advertising watchdogs for a campaign that trumpeted the brilliant simplicity of their recipe for fries -- the humble potato and nothing else.
Adverts showed a potato in a fries box alongside the text: "The story of our fries (end of story)."

But the public and campaigners objected, saying that often the chips were part-fried in one country, sometimes in beef tallow; flown halfway round the world; soaked in dextrose; often contaminated with gluten and finally drenched in excessive levels of salt.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said McDonald's argued the advert was "not intended to be a literal and comprehensive statement of all the processes involved."

It accepted the burger giant's case that it had not used beef tallow in Britain since 1993 and that there was no gluten contamination.

However, the ASA concluded the claim "we peel them, slice them, fry them and that's it" was misleading and told McDonalds to stop the adverts.