Morley's Woking's £12 burger deal ad broke the HFSS online-ad ban

S&E1 Ltd, an individual franchisee of the Morley's fried-chicken chain, ran a paid Instagram ad for its Woking branch. The image laid out two deals: '£12' for a steak burger, cheese burger, wings, nuggets, large fries and two drinks, and '£22' for a bigger bundle, beside pictures of the food and Pepsi cans.

The caption pitched the deals as 'Pretty good value if you ask us. Available this month only.' A complainant challenged whether the ad was a paid-for online ad for an identifiable 'less healthy' food product, which the UK's January 2026 rules now restrict.

The ASA upheld the complaint. The ad was paid for, and named identifiable menu items — burgers, wings, nuggets and fries — that fell within the 'less healthy' categories of the nutrient profiling rules. Neither side supplied nutrient profiles, but both accepted the foods were HFSS.

The franchisee could not use the small-business exemption: under the rules a franchisee's headcount is counted together with the franchisor's, and Morley's as a whole employed more than 250 people. Because the ad promoted an identifiable less healthy product rather than the brand, the brand exemption did not apply either.