Former glamour model and TV personality Katie Price has been told to remove an Instagram ad for The Skinny Food Co after it was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
Posted last August, the advert promoted an extremely low calorie diet, with Price outlining a diet plan which meant her meals added up to just 755 calories a day. Less than 1,200 calories a day is typically considered to be a ‘starvation’ diet.
The advertising watchdog said the ad was “irresponsible” and must not appear again.
The Instagram reel showed the celebrity making herself breakfast, lunch and dinner throughout the day and talking about her efforts to lose weight in a voiceover.
She went on to claim that The Skinny Food Co ingredients are high in protein and fibre but low in sugar and fat, with the final shot featuring Price’s voice saying: “Total calories for the day = 755”.
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The ad was banned on three separate grounds; on the basis that it was not obviously recognisable as an ad, that the diet it promoted was very low in calories, and that the products shown were not authorised on the Great Britain nutrition and health claims register.
In response to the initial complaints, Not Guilty Food Co Ltd t/a The Skinny Food Co said that the reel included the #ad hashtag, which they said was sufficient to ensure that it was clear that the reel was a paid promotion.
On the second and third points, the company said they could not control what Price ate. It also said the ad did not include any health claims, but the post itself talked about being in a caloric deficit, which was a proven way to achieve weight loss.
In response to all three issues, Price agreed to remove the ad and confirmed that she followed a calorie deficit approach, which she believed many people in the UK did. She also asked for further information on how to make similar posts compliant in future.
The ASA made clear that the ad must not appear again, telling The Skinny Food Co and Katie Price to ensure that their future ads were obviously identifiable as marketing communication and that the commercial intent was made clear.
