A recent ban was imposed on an influencer’s post promoting Sainsbury’s infant formula due to a breach of the UK’s advertising rules.
- The post by influencer Kayleigh Johnson included an affiliate link to Sainsbury’s infant formula product, violating marketing restrictions.
- The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) emphasized that promoting infant formula is prohibited by the UK Advertising Code.
- The ad was not clearly labeled as a marketing communication, obscuring its commercial intent.
- Both Sainsbury’s and the influencer were warned by the ASA to clearly label future adverts to avoid ambiguity.
In a recent development, an influencer’s post featuring Sainsbury’s infant formula has come under scrutiny, resulting in a ban by authorities. This decision stems from the post’s contravention of UK regulations governing the marketing of infant milk products. According to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), such promotional activities are explicitly restricted by the UK Advertising Code.
The controversial post, shared by influencer Kayleigh Johnson, displayed an affiliate link to an infant formula product on Sainsbury’s website. It included a box querying, “Are you going to breastfeed? If not what formula will you use?”, along with a narrative of the influencer’s breastfeeding journey. This was accompanied by a link titled “Formula we use,” directly connecting to Sainsbury’s product page.
The crux of the issue lay in the fact that the ad was insufficiently marked as a commercial communication, rendering its advertising purpose unclear to consumers. The ASA underscored that the advertisement failed to meet the transparency requirements necessary under current regulatory frameworks.
In response to the breach, the ASA issued a mandate for the advertisement’s removal and alerted both Sainsbury’s and the involved influencer to label any future advertising content more clearly. Such directives are in place to ensure that consumers are fully aware of promotional material, particularly in sensitive markets such as infant formula.
Despite these clear regulations, there is ongoing discourse on the impact of such advertising limitations on the pricing of infant formula. Just a few months ago, the Competition and Markets Authority noted that rigid advertising restrictions might be contributing to the elevated prices observed in the market. Furthermore, a call for legislative changes by Iceland underscored the complexity of current advertising restrictions, advocating for amendments to allow price promotions and loyalty schemes.
The prohibition of the influencer’s post underscores the ongoing challenge of balancing regulatory compliance and market dynamics within the infant formula sector.
