By Jack Mendel
The advertising regulator has ruled the government broke the law with a series of advertorials in local newspapers.
The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities published pieces on March 13 on the websites of the Grimsby Telegraph, Derby Telegraph, Birmingham Mail, Leicestershire Mercury and Newcastle Chronicle, and on Cornwall Live and Wales Online.
Labour MPs Lisa Nandy and Alex Norris said the series of articles were not clearly labelled as advertorials, leading to an investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority.
In a verdict published today, the ASA ruled the government had broken the rules, and “the ads must not appear again in their current form.”
We told the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and Reach Plc to ensure that all future marketing communications were prominently and clearly identifiable as such.”
The DLUHC said they “believed the advertorial labelling was both visible and prominent” and the word ‘advertorial’ had been capitalised, and was in publisher Reach’s house style.
According to today’s ruling, the ASA decided that it did not meet the government’s CAP Code (UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing), because they “were not obviously identifiable as marketing communications”.
Alex Norris MP, shadow levelling up minister, said “struggling families will not understand why ministers spent millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money” on the ads.
“The fact this campaign broke advertising rules just adds insult to injury.”
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