A major advertising drive promoting the government’s levelling up agenda broke advertising rules, a watchdog has concluded after complaints were made about the billboard and local newspaper campaign. The campaign preceded local elections this year and involved a significant number of placements on local newspaper websites, including the Grimsby Telegraph, the Derby Telegraph, the Birmingham Mail and the Leicester Mercury. Labour has accused the government of using the adverts paid for by the taxpayer as “effectively Tory propaganda”. Government transparency data cited a spend of £2.15m by Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities for the adverts, which were ruled a breach by the Advertising Standards Authority. This included £590,000 for adverts placed with local news organisations, which were the ones found to be in breach, and an additional £1m for billboards and posters. The regulator found the local news ads breached advertising rules as they “were not obviously identifiable as marketing communications”. The National Audit Office said in April that DLUHC “could not provide any documentation to demonstrate the rationale or selection process” for the 22 areas that were the focus of the campaign. Alex Norris, the shadow levelling up minister who filed the complaint with the ASA, said the adverts in local papers had used taxpayers’ money for “what was effectively Tory propaganda”. He added: “The fact this campaign broke advertising rules just adds insult to injury. “With millions of families struggling to make ends meet and our frontline services buckling under the pressure of rising costs, we need a government that will spend taxpayers’ money wisely, play by the rules, and deliver growth for every part of the country.” The adverts in the local paper websites had headlines that said: “Levelling Up! What is it and what does it mean for the West Midlands?” or other regions where the adverts were placed.
In its ruling set to be published on Wednesday, the ASA said it had concluded that despite being labelled with the text “ADVERTORIAL”, the full-page ads did not make it sufficiently clear they were paid advertising. “We considered, within the context of the full-page ads, that it was not clear that the heading related to the ads and that readers were likely to overlook this text,” it concluded. “We acknowledged that the advertorials featured an infographic which included a HM Government logo. However, we considered that readers were likely to understand that the infographic itself was derived from a government source and used in the context of an editorial article, rather than draw the conclusion that its presence meant the article was an ad for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.” The advert has been banned from appearing again in its current form. 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.”