The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has been rapped by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) over seven newspaper ads promoting the government’s levelling up agenda and told not to produce them again after they were reported by Labour MPs Lisa Nandy and Alex Norris.

The ads featured in the Grimsby Telegraph, the Derby Telegraph, the Birmingham Mail, Cornwall Live, the Leicester Mercury, the Newcastle Chronicle and Wales Online – all owned by Reach Plc, which also owns The Mirror newspaper.

But Nandy and Norris, both DLUHC shadow ministers, complained to the regulators that the ads were not obviously identifiable as marketing communications.

LEVELLING UP

The first newspaper advertorial, seen on 13 March 2022, featured on the Grimsby Telegraph website and had the headline “Levelling Up! What is it and what does it mean for Grimsby?”. Underneath that, text stated, “By Millie Reeves Commercial Writer”. On the far right-hand side, a grey box with the word “ADVERTORIAL” was featured. Directly underneath that, “MOST READ” was stated and a number of links to other Grimsby Telegraph articles were included below that text.

At the bottom of the article, an infographic was featured which included the HM Government logo.”

The other six adverts all had the same design but tailored to each area. Both the DLUHC and Reach Plc  believed the advertorial labelling was both visible and prominent and was in Reach Plc’s house style and common practice across all of their titles.

UPHELD

But the ASA upheld the complaint as the CAP Code stated that marketing communications must be obviously identifiable as such. Any visual or contextual signposts need to be sufficiently prominent and clear prior to engagement with the content.

As a result, the ads must not appear again in their current form.

A statement from the ASA says: “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.”