Food giants KFC and Kellogg’s have been told to remove adverts which promoted junk food to children, by the UK’s advertising watchdog. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) says they broke strict rules on advertising high fat, sugar or salt products to children. The ASA found Kellogg’s promoted a Coco Pops product, during a Mr Bean cartoon, likely to have been seen by children. It also ruled KFC advertised a Mars product on a phone box by a school. Rules governing food advertising forbid promoting certain foods to children. KFC said the appearance of the ad close to a school was a simple human error and it had taken the advert down promptly, once it had been alerted. And Kellogg’s said it was disappointed with the decision as it had only meant to promote the healthier Coco Pops Granola product, rather than the original version. Members of the public complained to the ASA, triggering the investigations. The ASA was alerted to a poster ad for KFC’s Mars Krushems drink which was seen on a phone box outside a school. Because it was displayed close to the entrance to a primary school, children under the age of 16 made up a much higher proportion of the ad’s audience. The ASA considered it was highly likely those younger children comprised significantly more than 25% of the audience of the ad, and that it therefore broke the rules. The Coco Pops Granola ad appeared between episodes of the Mr Bean cartoon, during a section of programming specifically directed at children under 16. The ASA said that, although Coco Pops Granola was not a high fat, sugar or salt product, because the Coco Pops branding was synonymous with Coco Pops original cereal and with the Coco Pops range, it concluded the ad had effectively promoted the range.