Who: The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), Not Guilty Food Co Ltd t/a The Skinny Food Co (The Skinny Food Co) and Katie Price (as influencer)
Where: United Kingdom
When: 3 April 2024
Law stated as at: 21 May 2024
What happened:
The Skinny Food Co is a food and drinks manufacturer. In August 2023, a social media video was posted on celebrity influencer Katie Price’s account. The video featured various moments of Ms Price’s day where she made meals for herself and spoke about her efforts to lose weight, which prominently featured her consumption of The Skinny Food Co products and the corresponding calories.
Ms Price’s voiceover in the video included comments such as:
- “So here I am making my delicious coffee, with the caramelised biscuit Skinny Food zero calorie syrup. It’s fat free and sugar free too. And on top of that I absolutely love my Skinny Food porridge and guess what, it only has 262 calories“
- “Tonight I am having the Skinny Food chocoholic malt balls. They’re only 89 calories per packet, low in sugar, and these really do hit the spot”.
- “Total calories for the day = 755“.
- “If I have a bad day I like to go in a calorie deficit to ensure it’s not a bad week!”
The ASA upheld the complaints on the social media video, which must not appear again in its current form. This was based on the following considerations.
More #ad clarity required
Despite the video’s caption including a reference to “#ad”, the ASA highlighted that this disclaimer was inadequate as it was placed at the end of the caption and was therefore not visible to consumers without engaging with the post and expanding the text. As a result, the ASA held that this ad breached the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct and Promotional Marketing (CAP Code) (edition 12) rules 2.1 and 2.4 (recognition of marketing communications), and highlighted that influencers need to ensure that “any label needs to be clear and prominent and upfront“. As a reminder, the ASA influencer guidance also suggests that such ad disclosures should be obvious from the outset, which typically means including the disclosure “at the start of the post text, in a title or thumbnail, or on an image – whatever people see first“.
Responsible weight loss
In order to follow responsible weight loss, an 800 kilocalories a day diet should only be followed for a short-term basis and prior medical advice should be encouraged. Ms Price’s video stated that her total calories consumption for that day was 755 kilocalories. The video then inferred that this was based on a diet of The Skinny Food Co products, as all of the foods shown as part of the video were part of its range.
The ASA acknowledged that the video did not specify a time limit to which Ms Price followed this “below 800 kilocalories a day” diet. However, the ASA held that this ad breached CAP Code (edition 12) rules 1.3 (responsible advertising) and 13.7 (weight control and slimming), as there was no explicit instruction that this diet should only be followed for a short-term basis, and there was also no reference to taking medical advice before starting on the diet.
Only use register-authorised health claims
Ms Price’s video made several comments in relation to the low calorific content of The Skinny Food Co products. In the context of this and the overall impression of the ad, the ASA held that the video implied that the products shown could contribute to weight loss. Additionally, the ASA considered that the reference to food products as “Skinny Food(s)” (as per the company name) would also in itself be understood by consumers to mean that the products were linked to weight loss, or could help to maintain weight after weight loss. As these specific health claims were not authorised on the Great Britain nutrition and health claims (GB NHC) register, the ASA held that the ad breached CAP Code (edition 12) rules 15.1 and 15.1.1 (food, food supplements and associated health or nutrition claims).
Why this matters:
This ruling is another example of the high level of scrutiny in relation to advertisements that feature weight loss products. In particular, it highlights that care must be taken to consider not only what is included in these types of advertisements but also what is missing. While Ms Price’s video only featured one day’s worth of a diet being below 800 kilocalories, this is an example that adverts need to be much more explicit in stating that such diets are only for short-term use and marketers have a responsibility to encourage users to seek medical advice before beginning such a diet.
Manufacturers and influencers for weight loss products should familiarise themselves with the parameters in which these products can be advertised.
As always, care should also be taken to ensure that any advertisements are clearly marked as advertisements in a prominent and upfront manner (without requiring consumer engagement to identify the disclosure), and that adverts only use health claims which are authorised on the GB NHC register.
