Discounter Lidl and frozen food specialist Iceland have become the first UK companies to have ads banned following the introduction of rules cracking down on the marketing of junk food.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has been policing the ban on adverts featuring junk food on television before 9pm and in paid online advertising at any time of day since January 5.

Today, the advertising watchdog said that ads from the two grocers that appeared on Instagram and the Daily Mail’s website broke the new rules, which prohibit the advertising of items deemed high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) from being promoted to tackle rising childhood obesity.

Under the new advertising rules, chocolates and sweets fail the nutrient profiling model and are classified as an HFSS product or “less healthy” food, and therefore cannot be advertised. 

Lidl’s ad, featuring a popular Northern Irish influencer, was an Instagram post promoting the discounter’s bakery products. While Iceland was pulled up by the watchdog for a digital display and banner ad on the Daily Mail’s website promoting a range of products including Disco Stix and Haribo sweets.

Lidl said it had intended its Instagram promotion to be “brand led”, but accepted the ASA’s finding that the advert promoted a banned product. 

Iceland said it was “aware of gaps” in the nutrient profile data provided by suppliers and that it had hired a data provider to compile nutritional information to catch all HFSS products, but some products had slipped through the net on the ad. 

ASA upheld the complaints and has banned both the ads. 

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