A complaint that On the Beach’s advert for free lounge access didn’t comply with new advertising rules has been thrown out by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
A viewer who saw the advert, featuring a boy in an airport lounge putting a chocolate doughnut on his plate, complained it broke new rules on TV advertising that came into effect in January.
The rules ban the broadcasting of adverts for ‘less healthy’ food and drink on TV between 5.30am and 9pm.
The complainant saw the advert before 9pm on the evening of 7 January 2026, two days after the new rules came into force.
In response, On the Beach said the primary message of the advert related to a holiday experience and the doughnut ‘appeared only incidentally’. It argued the average consumer would understand the ad was promoting On the Beach’s free airport lounge access for five-star holidays, rather than promoting any specific food product.
It added the doughnut was only shown briefly in the ad, being visible for less than one second and shown as part of a wider buffet setting.
Clearcast, the UK organisation that pre-approves TV adverts to ensure they comply with regulatory codes, said it gave the advert the go-ahead because ‘the food featured was not identifiable in such a way that a calculation of its nutrient profile could be carried out; the advertiser was an online travel agent; and the ad was predominantly for an airport lounge access offer’.
It added it didn’t expect any viewer ‘would identify the ad as being for food’.
The ASA did not find the ad breached the new rules and dismissed the complaint.
It said: “We considered that consumers who viewed the ad could not reasonably be expected to identify that the ad was for the doughnut. Rather, they would identify the ad as being for the perk of free airport lounge access if they purchased a five-star holiday from On the Beach.”
