Mitchells & Butlers grilled over Facebook steak ad

Mitchells & Butlers has been hauled over the coals for a misleading Facebook post promoting a fixed price menu.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a complaint regarding a Vintage Inns post about its £10.95 fixed price menu. The Facebook post featured an image of a fillet steak, though no such dish was available.

Mitchells & Butlers did not respond to ASA enquiries, causing the regulator to express its concern for the "apparent disregard of the code".

The ASA said: "We considered that consumers would understand from the post that the fillet steak would be included in the fixed price promotion. However, it appeared that this was not the case as it did not feature on the fixed price menu linked to in the ad. We therefore concluded that the ad was misleading."

It ruled that the ad must not appear again in its current form and referred the issue to the Committees of Advertising Practice.

Mitchells & Butlers said that it was not aware of being contacted regarding the complaint.

Vintage Inns said in a statement: "We take any ASA complaints extremely seriously. We are not aware of this specific complaint, but will be investigating this issue immediately."

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