Government broke advertising rules in £2m ad campaign, says Labour

• The government broke advertising rules in a marketing campaign that cost taxpayers over £2 million 
  
  Spending records published on gov.uk show that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & 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 such as Birmingham, Derby and Grimsby, and over £1m for ‘out of home’ advertising such as billboards and posters. 
  
  The Advertising Standards Authority – the UK’s independent advertising regulator – has found the local news ads breached advertising rules as they “were not obviously identifiable as marketing communications”. 
  
  DLUHC has been warned the ads must not appear again in their current form and future campaigns must comply with the ASA’s rules. 
  
  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 which were the focus of the campaign. These areas were signed off by then-Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Michael Gove. 
  
  This comes after it emerged ministers have budgeted more than £930m to buy advertising space in an effort to sell government policies in the lead-up to the next election, almost double the normal advertising budget for government over the previous four years. 
  
  Responding, Alex Norris MP, Shadow Levelling Up Minister, said: 
  
  “In the middle of the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation, struggling families will not understand why ministers spent millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on what was effectively Tory propaganda. The fact this campaign broke advertising rules just adds insult to injury. 
  
  “With millions of families struggling to make ends meet and our front-line 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. 
  
  “Instead we have an economic crisis, made in Downing Street and paid for by working people.” 
  
  Ends
  
  NOTES TO EDITORS 

DLUHC paid for a series of newspaper articles with local news organisations earlier this year. They have since been deleted: 

https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/special-features/levelling-up-what-what-mean-6785684  

https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/special-features/levelling-up-what-what-mean-6785647  

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/special-features/levelling-up-what-what-mean-23366134  

https://www.cornwalllive.com/special-features/levelling-up-what-what-mean-6785616  

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/special-features/levelling-up-what-what-mean-6785704 

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/special-features/levelling-up-what-what-mean-23354052 

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/special-features/levelling-up-what-what-mean-23354294 

According to the latest report on departmental spending published on gov.uk, DLUHC spent £2,145,325 on its Levelling Up marketing campaign. Relevant entries from the full spending spreadsheet: 

Manning Gottlieb OMD is a “media communications agency”: https://www.mgomd.com/ 

MSQ Partners is a marketing and PR firm: https://www.msqpartners.com/ 

In response to a letter from Alex Norris MP raising concerns about the paid-for adverts, the Comptroller and Auditor General of the National Audit Office confirmed that DLUHC “could not provide any documentation to demonstrate the rationale or selection process” for the 22 areas which were the focus of the campaign, and that these areas were signed off by the then-Secretary of State. 

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has since upheld a complaint that the adverts were not obviously identifiable as marketing communications. The ads breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 2.1, 2.3 and 2.4 (Recognition of marketing communications). [See attached file] 

As a result, the ads must not appear again in their current form, and DLUHC has been warned that all future marketing communications must be prominently and clearly identifiable as such. 

Recent Labour analysis found that ministers have budgeted more than £930m to buy advertising space in an effort to sell government policies in the lead-up to the next election, almost double the normal advertising budget for government over the previous four years: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/03/ministers-given-930m-to-spend-on-advertising-space-to-tout-policies