Iceland Foods and Lidl have broken the recently introduced UK rules on promoting foods high in fat, salt and sugar.
The UK’s advertising watchdog said the retailers’ ads breached regulations that went live in January.
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At the start of the year, the UK introduced new rules prohibiting the advertising of the foods on TV before 9pm, as well as through paid online spots at any time.
The Advertising Standards Authority highlighted two adverts run by Iceland on the website of UK publication The Daily Mail and an Instagram post from influencer Emma Kearney used by Lidl.
Iceland had placed a banner advert and a display ad on the Daily Mail site on 12 January to promote products including confectionery from Swizzels Matlow, Perfetti van Melle and Haribo. Campaign group Bite Back issued a complaint to the ASA.
Lidl had signed up Kearney to promote the discount retailer’s bakery products. Her Instagram post included a tray of pain suisse, which an unnamed complainant to the ASA said was a “less healthy” product that breached the new regulations.
The ASA upheld the complaints and banned the ads.
In a response posted the ASA site, Iceland Foods said it had paid an ad network to place the ads on its behalf. The ads were targeted at shoppers who had previously visited the Iceland website but had not completed a purchase.
Iceland Foods said it had asked suppliers to provide them nutrient profile information before the new rules were introduced but acknowledge it was “aware of gaps in this data”.
Lidl said it had intended for Kearney’s post to be “brand-led” – which meant the ad would have met the rules – but “accepted that the combination of visual close-ups and verbal descriptions of the pain suisse and cheese pretzel could have led consumers to identify that the ad was for those products individually”, the ASA said.
