Government's 'levelling up' ad campaign banned by ASA

Seven newspaper advertorials for the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities have been banned following complaints from two Labour MPs that they were not obviously identifiable as ads.

Labour claims that spending records published on gov.uk show that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) spent £2.15 million on a marketing drive in March 2022 to promote its ‘Levelling Up’ policies. This included £590,000 for adverts placed with local news organisations in areas including Birmingham, Derby and Grimsby, and over £1m on so-called ‘out of home’ advertising such as billboards and posters, the party says.

The newspaper ads carried headlines such as: “Levelling Up! What is it and what does it mean for Grimsby?”.

Beneath the headline, a byline from a "commercial writer" was included, while the text included a grey box with the word “advertorial” in block capitals and an infographic including the HM Government logo.

Labour MPs Lisa Nandy and Alex Norris complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that the marketing campaign was not obviously identifiable as such.

DLUHC said they believed the advertorial labelling was both visible and prominent.

Reach said the ”advertorial” label travelled down as the reader scrolled through the page but later confirmed that this technical feature was not in place at the time of the campaign and therefore would not have been seen by readers of the ads.

Reach added readers would have seen the advertorials via a Facebook or Google ad or the newspaper’s homepage, all paths which were obviously labelled as marketing communications.

However, the ASA noted that while the ads were labelled, the statements did not reference the DLUHC and it was not clear from the text that the subsequent article would also be an ad.

The ASA said the “advertorial” label on the homepage was small and likely to be overlooked by readers who would also understand the byline to mean that the article was a piece of editorial content.

The ASA said: “We therefore concluded that the ads were not obviously identifiable as marketing communications.

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“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.”

A DLUHC spokesperson said: "This was a small element of an important public information campaign about Levelling Up.

 “The advertorial labelling was visible and prominent, carried the HMG logo and was in Reach plc’s house style for sponsored content.

 “However, we accept ASA’s conclusions and will ensure these are reflected in any future materials.”