Advertising news

• Nike, Superdry and Lacoste ads banned in UK over ‘misleading’ green claims

  03-12-2025 01:01
  Advertising watchdog says all three firms misled shoppers by using term ‘sustainable’ in paid-for Google advertsAds for Nike, Superdry and Lacoste have been banned in the UK for misleading consumers about the environmental sustainability credentials of their products.The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said paid-for Google ads run by all three retailers used terms such as “sustainable”, “sustainable materials” or “sustainable style” without p
  
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• US senators call for investigation of scam ads on Facebook and Instagram

  24-11-2025 13:42
  Hawley and Blumenthal cite Reuters reporting that Meta estimated platforms were involved in third of all US scamsUS senators Josh Hawley and Richard Blumenthal have asked the heads of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate revenue from ads on Facebook and Instagram that promote scams and banned goods.“The FTC and SEC should immediately open investigations and, if the reporting is accurate, pursue vigorous enforcement action where
  
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• UK gambling firms spent ‘astronomic’ £2bn on advertising last year

  23-11-2025 07:00
  Calls for Rachel Reeves to increase taxes in budget as estimate outstrips duties collected from online casinosBritish gambling companies spent an “astronomic” £2bn on advertising and marketing last year, according to a new estimate that has intensified calls for the chancellor to increase taxes on the sector.Bookmakers, online casinos and slot machine companies spent the sum through a mixture of print and digital promotions, as well as affiliate programmes, where third parties
  
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• Ultra-processed food linked to harm in every major human organ, study finds

  19-11-2025 00:30
  World’s largest scientific review warns consumption of UPFs poses seismic threat to global health and wellbeingUltra-processed food (UPF) is linked to harm in every major organ system of the human body and poses a seismic threat to global health, according to the world’s largest review.UPF is also rapidly displacing fresh food in the diets of children and adults on every continent, and is associated with an increased risk of a dozen health conditions, including obesity, type 2 diabet
  
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• WPP shares leap amid takeover bid speculation

  17-11-2025 12:09
  Advertising group declines to comment on reports of interest from rival Havas and private equity groups Apollo and KKRBusiness live – latest updatesShares in WPP have risen sharply amid speculation that the advertising group could be the subject of a takeover by a rival or a private equity buyer.Its French rival Havas, which was listed on Euronext in Amsterdam in December and is controlled by the billionaire Vincent Bolloré, has reportedly held internal talks about a potential bid a
  
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• ’Tis the season for dubious TV adverts | Letters

  14-11-2025 18:45
  Readers aren’t convinced by the wholesome family message peddled by John Lewis in its latest Christmas ad The issues you highlighted in your editorial are real, but please don’t think that advertisers care about them (The Guardian view on the John Lewis Christmas ad: a modern story of fathers and sons, 7 November).This ad is a shameless attempt to make consumers think they are doing something worthwhile in buying overpriced gifts in a failing store that used to share its profits with
  
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• Grub actually: Keira Knightley’s Christmas Waitrose ad is sweet and funny. The first time, anyway

  12-11-2025 11:28
  Their mini romcom is a classy move both for the star and the upmarket supermarket. But how many times will you be able to watch it before you start gagging? It has been a big couple of months for Keira Knightley. In October she starred (as a Guardian journalist, no less) in Netflix’s thriller The Woman in Cabin 10. Two weeks later she published her first children’s book. And now, to top it all off, she is making history in the only cultural medium that really matters any more: the mi
  
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• ‘I got paid £250 for one day of filming’: how to earn cash as a film or TV extra

  12-11-2025 08:00
  You don’t need acting experience and rarely have to say anything … but being flexible can result in a lucrative side hustleIf you have ever dreamed of seeing yourself on screen – or just want a fun way to earn additional cash – working as an extra (or “supporting artist”) can be a lucrative side hustle. Continue reading...
  
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• Facebook’s job ads algorithm is sexist, French equality watchdog rules

  05-11-2025 12:17
  Regulator found ads for mechanics skewed towards men while those for preschool teachers targeted womenThe French equalities regulator has declared that Facebook’s algorithm for placing job adverts is sexist, after an investigation found that adverts for mechanic roles skewed towards men while those for preschool teachers were targeted at women.The Défenseur des Droits watchdog said the Facebook system for targeted job ads treated users differently based on their sex, and constituted
  
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• A definitive list of what’s cool (and what’s not cool) | Letters

  04-11-2025 18:50
  Readers respond to an article by Elle Hunt and share their own definitions of coolnessWhat a lovely piece by Elle Hunt (Can I learn to be cool – even though I am garrulous, swotty and wear no-show socks?, 30 October). Coolness resides in those people who are whole in themselves, who do not stop to question whether they are cool, but simply do, love what they do, and are generally excellent at it. Authenticity is cool. Less is more is cool. By definition you, Elle, are cool (you write for t
  
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• Watch the 2025 John Lewis Christmas advert – video

  04-11-2025 08:28
  This year's Christmas advert from John Lewis has arrived, launching a new campaign called Where Love Lives, with the tagline: 'If you can’t find the words, find the gift.' The 90s dance act Alison Limerick provides the soundtrack with her hit Where Love Lives, and there is a newly reimagined version by the artist and producer Labrinth. The video takes viewers to Christmas Day in a family household with the focus on the dad, who is by the tree on his hands and knees clearing up discarded wr
  
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• John Lewis ad kickstarts Christmas countdown to the tune of 90s club classic

  04-11-2025 01:01
  Department store chain banks on nostalgia to get customers into festive mood with Where Love LivesJohn Lewis is hoping that a dash of nostalgia will get consumers into the festive mood this year as it officially kickstarts the countdown to Christmas with the launch of its 2025 advert to the tune of the 1990s club classic Where Love Lives.The department store chain is appealing to ageing clubbers – and their teenage kids – with this year’s ad focused on a middle-aged dad transpo
  
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• A doctor’s bracing advice to new mums | Brief letters

  30-10-2025 18:28
  Celebrities’ bodies | Rachel Reeves | Income tax | Dogs on sofasCoco Khan’s article (Opinion, 22 October) reminded me of a visit to my GP 30 years ago, after the birth of my son. While waiting to go in, I’d been perusing the usual array of magazines featuring celebrities, several of whom had recently given birth and had seemingly bounced back into shape overnight. When I saw the doctor, a wonderful gentleman edging towards retirement, and quizzed him on how on earth this was po
  
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• WPP jobs at risk as ad group’s new boss condemns ‘unacceptable’ performance

  30-10-2025 15:02
  Review launched after firm struggles to stem exodus of clients and compete with AI and data capabilities of rivalsJobs could be at risk at WPP as its new chief executive has launched a review designed to revive the advertising group’s fortunes after a fresh profit warning.Cindy Rose announced the review on Thursday, saying she was taking action to address “unacceptable” performance at the company, which has struggled to stem a growing exodus of clients and compete with the AI a
  
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• Racism, intent and the diversity in TV adverts | Letters

  29-10-2025 18:26
  Readers respond to the Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin’s remarks about ‘adverts full of black people, full of Asian people’The “now you see it, now you don’t”, “was it or wasn’t it” racism of recent days is nothing new, but it is profoundly dispiriting and corrosive (Nigel Farage defends MP’s complaint about TV adverts as ‘ugly’ but not ‘deliberately’ racist, 27 October). It reduces racism to a prejudice that leak
  
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• What’s with the sponcon slop in Nobody Wants This? Netflix, nobody wants this | Alaina Demopoulos

  29-10-2025 12:00
  Season two of the Adam Brody and Kristen Bell-starring show feels like a long infomercial thanks to endless product placementAfter a long day, it’s nice to put on some sweats, pour yourself a glass of wine, turn on the TV and cozy up to an advertisement for Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair Serum Synchronized Multi-Recovery Complex.Or at least that’s what I found myself doing on Sunday night, when I returned for season two of Netflix’s Nobody Wants This. In the series,
  
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• Prunella Scales obituary

  28-10-2025 14:31
  Versatile stage and screen actor who found TV comedy fame as Sybil Fawlty and later played Elizabeth II on stageAlthough it became virtually a weekly occurrence to find Queen Elizabeth II treading the boards in recent years, the first time a reigning monarch was portrayed on the contemporary British stage came when Prunella Scales, who has died aged 93, played Her Majesty in Alan Bennett’s A Question of Attribution at the National Theatre in 1988.She did so to the displeasure of the NT&rsq
  
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• It's the noblest battle of our new free-speech age: Sarah Pochin's anti-woke couch crusade | Marina Hyde

  28-10-2025 14:24
  The Reform MP was driven ‘mad’ by the number of black and Asian people on the telly. What totally settled non-issue will her party tackle next?Does it matter what colour the people in a sofa advert are? I can’t help feeling it doesn’t. Certainly, after next month’s budget, our political class might find it has more pressing concerns than skin pigment in fictional families convened to flog you something comfy in chenille. In fact, if some of the even bigger global fi
  
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• Reform MP’s claim about ‘adverts full of black and Asian people’ omits profitability for companies

  27-10-2025 19:22
  Sarah Pochin’s anger not shared by brands who find that more diversity in commercials is great for their bottom lineSarah Pochin’s claim on Saturday that she was driven mad by “seeing adverts full of black and Asian people” might have seemed like another hard-right hard sell from a politician who used one of her first sessions in the Houses of Parliament to ask Keir Starmer if he’d “ban the burqa”.The Runcorn and Helsby MP was later forced to apologise,
  
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• Ben Jennings on the Reform row over TV adverts – cartoon

  27-10-2025 18:55
  Discover and buy more of Ben’s cartoons hereOrder your own print of this cartoon from the Guardian Print Shop Continue reading...
  
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• Consumers: tell us how you feel about large quantities of emails from brands

  27-10-2025 14:02
  Whether it’s transactional confirmation messages, special offer alerts, abandoned cart reminders or newsletters, we’d like to hear what people make of the steady influx of emails from brandsA single online purchase can leave a dozen emails in a consumer’s inbox: order confirmations, processing confirmations, courier handover confirmations, dispatch, transit and delivery confirmations as well as multiple prompts to review a purchase are now being sent out by many retailers for e
  
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• From the archive: Who owns Einstein? The battle for the world’s most famous face – podcast

  22-10-2025 06:00
  We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.This week, from 2022: Thanks to a savvy California lawyer, Albert Einstein has earned far more posthumously than he ever did in his lifetime. But is that what the great scientist would have wanted?By Simon Parkin. Read by Ruth Lass Continue reading...
  
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• What’s gone wrong at WPP? The crown slips at world’s biggest advertising group

  20-10-2025 07:00
  Exodus of big clients, falling profits and dire forecasts raise prospect of a once ‘unthinkable’ breakupA dark joke is doing the rounds in adland that the original Wire and Plastic Products, the small Kent-based basketmaker that Martin Sorrell bought 40 years ago as a stock market-listed vehicle to build WPP, might outlast the advertising giant itself. Now named Delfinware, and a maker of dish drainers with 10 employees, the business is 56 years old and privately held, while the list
  
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• ‘A 360 turn’: concern as fashion shows feature fewer plus-size models

  17-10-2025 19:31
  Vogue report finds fall in number of ‘curve’ models, while widespread use of weight-loss drugs credited with normalising thinnessFashion insiders have expressed concern that efforts towards size inclusivity are being eroded, with experts saying the industry has “done a 360 turn” back to promoting thinness.This week a report by Vogue Business found that out of the 9,038 looks presented across 198 shows in the womenswear collections earlier this month, 97.1% were shown on s
  
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• Google given special status by watchdog that could force it to change UK search

  10-10-2025 12:53
  CMA puts Google under tighter regulation with ‘strategic market status’ designation and can enforce changesBusiness live – latest updatesGoogle faces enforced changes to its UK search business after the competition watchdog conferred a special status on the company that puts it under tighter regulation.The Competition and Market Authority (CMA) confirmed that Google has “strategic market status” (SMS) in search and search advertising, a term that means the company h
  
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• Sportsbet dines with government minister at Labor fundraiser despite calls to reject lobbying from industry

  09-10-2025 16:00
  Exclusive: Dinner occurred on the same day that four crossbench MPs held a press conference calling on government to ignore lobbying from gambling industryFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastSportsbet was invited to a Labor party fundraising dinner with an Albanese government minister earlier this week, despite bipartisan calls for the party to ignore lobbying from the wagering industry and introduce tougher regulation.
  
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• Steve Smith obituary

  06-10-2025 16:50
  My friend Steve Smith, who has died aged 68 of prostate cancer, was a successful advertising copywriter. Imaginative and funny, in the late 1980s and early 90s he created many of the scripts for the classic Time for a Sharp Exit campaign for Harp lager, which was his concept. His stories all had blokes in awkward situations, such as in the “Randy the Dog” advert in which a man inadvertently causes his nextdoor neighbour’s pooch to jump out of a top floor window.Among other camp
  
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• UK regulators step up crackdown on firms chasing cut of car finance payouts

  06-10-2025 14:37
  Some claims companies shut down, others told to stop taking on clients and misleading ads ordered to be pulledUK regulators have shut down some claims companies and ordered others to stop taking on clients as they step up a crackdown on firms making misleading statements about car finance compensation.Four regulators have joined forces to tackle a wave of bad practices among claims management companies (CMCs) and consumer law firms that are attempting to grab a slice of the billions of pounds in
  
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• Assisted dying adverts to be banned if service legalised, Kim Leadbeater says

  12-06-2025 17:45
  MP to table amendment amid ‘wide consensus’ that ads should not be allowed to promote the procedureAdverts promoting assisted dying services will be banned if the procedure is made law under a new amendment, the MP sponsoring the bill has said.Labour’s Kim Leadbeater said adverts promoting assisted death as an option for terminally ill people would not be allowed. Continue reading...
  
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• The latest Andrex advert is a life-changing masterpiece | Adrian Chiles

  11-06-2025 16:59
  In scraping the bottom of the barrel to find something new to say about toilet paper, they’ve struck gold. If I had seen this as a kid, it would saved me years of fear and shameIf the latest Andrex TV advert had come along 50 years ago, it would have changed my life. It would have made my schooldays more enjoyable and might even have helped me to perform better academically. Honestly, I think it’s a gamechanger.It begins, unpromisingly, with a schoolboy breaking wind in class. What p
  
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• Social media creators to overtake traditional media in ad revenue this year

  10-06-2025 01:01
  User-generated material to surpass advertising income from professional media amid change in viewing habitsContent on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok and Instagram will attract more advertising income this year than content from traditional media companies, according to research, marking a “huge cultural shift” for the media world.User-generated material – videos, podcasts and posts put together by individual creators – will eclipse the ad revenue attracted by professio
  
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• The ‘death of creativity’? AI job fears stalk advertising industry

  09-06-2025 14:31
  WPP and others roll out AI-generated campaigns as Facebook owner Meta plans to let firms create their own adsWPP chief Mark Read to step down as agency battles AIFrom using motion capture tech to allow the Indian cricketing star Rahul Dravid to give personalised coaching tips for children to an algorithm trained on Shakespeare’s handwriting powering a robotic arm to rewrite Romeo and Juliet, artificial intelligence is rapidly revolutionising the global advertising industry.Those AI-created
  
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• WPP chief Mark Read to step down as ad agency battles AI

  09-06-2025 13:29
  CEO to leave global advertising group after three decades, with shares at lowest level in about five years‘The death of creativity’? AI job fears stalk advertising industryBusiness live – latest updatesThe boss of WPP, Mark Read, has announced he will step down, as the advertising agency, which was once the largest in the world, struggles against the rise of artificial intelligence and with its shares at their lowest level in about five years.Read will leave WPP after more than
  
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• TfL blocks Save the Children advert calling for end to two-child benefit limit

  04-06-2025 21:04
  Advert that highlighted impact on child poverty was deemed to have breached political advertising rules Transport for London (TfL) has banned adverts from the charity Save the Children calling for the two-child limit on universal credit and child tax credit to be scrapped, deeming them in breach of its bar on “political” advertising.The adverts, designed to look like a train departure board, carry the message: “By the time you get to work another child in the UK will be dragged
  
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• Facebook and Instagram owner Meta to enable AI ad creation by end of next year

  02-06-2025 15:10
  Move sends shock waves through traditional media industry by posing threat to advertising agenciesBusiness live – latest updatesThe owner of Facebook and Instagram is to help advertisers to fully create and target campaigns using artificial intelligence tools by the end of next year, in a move that sent shock waves through the traditional marketing industry.Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, which also owns WhatsApp, aims to directly target brands’ marketing budgets, posing a threat to th
  
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• London mayor reverses TfL ban on ads calling for abortion decriminalisation

  02-06-2025 08:00
  Sadiq Khan seeking ‘urgent review’ of decision to ban adverts from British Pregnancy Advisory ServiceThe mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has stepped in to reverse a ban on adverts on the London transport network calling for abortion to be decriminalised.It is understood that the mayor is seeking an “urgent review” of a Transport for London (TfL) decision to ban the adverts from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas) charity on the grounds they may bring the Metropolit
  
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• TfL blocks ads calling on people to lobby MPs to decriminalise abortion

  31-05-2025 07:00
  London transport body says allowing Bpas adverts on its network could bring police and City Hall into disreputeTransport for London has blocked adverts that urge people to lobby their MPs to vote to decriminalise abortion from running on its network because it claims they could bring the police and City Hall into disrepute.Parliament is expected to vote on whether to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales in the coming weeks, with amendments tabled to the crime and policing bill seeking to
  
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• Selling a house in Australia is expensive. The ACCC is investigating one reason why

  29-05-2025 04:15
  News Corp’s REA Group, behind real estate listings site realestate.com.au, is being investigated by the consumer watchdog amid complaints over its market dominance Australia news live: latest politics updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAustralia’s consumer watchdog is investigating the practices of REA Group, the News Corp-controlled real estate listings behemoth that runs realestate.com.au.The development comes months after a major Guardian Australia i
  
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• QVC, Macmillan and Audible win at Guardian Advertising Awards 2025

  23-05-2025 14:59
  Second annual awards celebrate scale, influence and integrity across Guardian platformsBrands including QVC, Macmillan and Audible have been recognised at the second annual Guardian Advertising Awards, which celebrate scale, influence and integrity across the publisher’s platforms.The grand prix award was given to QVC for the Menopause Your Way campaign, which the judges called “brave” and praised for its inclusivity in an advertising space that is “not usually inclusive&
  
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• FTC investigates media watchdog over Musk’s X boycott claims, document shows

  22-05-2025 22:46
  Media Matters faces government inquiry into whether it helped advertisers coordinate to pull ad dollars from XThe US Federal Trade Commission has demanded documents from Media Matters about possible coordination with other media watchdogs accused by Elon Musk of helping orchestrate advertiser boycotts of X, according to a document seen by Reuters on Thursday.The civil investigative demand seen by Reuters seeks information about Media Matters’ communications with other groups that evaluate
  
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• UK ban on junk food adverts targeting children is delayed until next year

  22-05-2025 16:43
  Experts say delay from October to January after lobbying by food industry is huge setback for public healthMinisters are to delay introducing a ban on junk food adverts targeting children until 2026, sparking outrage among health campaigners.Labour made new rules prohibiting unhealthy food ads online and before 9pm on television a key election manifesto pledge, and after winning power it promised the ban would come into force across the UK on 1 October. Continue reading...
  
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• It’s time to stop the great food heist powered by big business. That means taxation, regulation and healthy school meals | Stuart Gillespie

  21-05-2025 06:00
  The global food system has been captured by a few rapacious companies that profit from public ill-health. We need a radical overhaulOur food system is killing us. Designed in a different century for a different purpose – to mass produce cheap calories to prevent famine – it is now a source of jeopardy, destroying more than it creates. A quarter of all adult deaths globally – more than 12 million every year – are due to poor diets.Malnutrition in all its forms – unde
  
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• New Australian free-to-air TV rules could allow alcohol ads from 10am, even on weekends and school holidays

  20-05-2025 17:00
  Media authority mulls Free TV Australia’s proposed revised code of practice to expand daytime hours when M programming is permittedAustralia news live: latest politics updatesSign up for Guardian Australia’s free weekly media newsletter hereFree-to-air broadcasters want classification rules changed to allow an additional 800 hours of alcohol ads every year despite one in three children already being exposed to liquor commercials on television.Despite laws banning alcohol marketing du
  
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• Firms still greenwashing in adverts after being censured, UK investigation finds

  14-05-2025 13:44
  Exclusive: Virgin Atlantic and Renault among companies that continued to publish misleading environmental claimsCompanies have continued to post misleading greenwashing adverts after being censured by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), according to an investigation.Greenpeace UK’s investigative journalism unit, Unearthed, reports that Virgin Atlantic, Renault and Aqua Pura are among companies that continued to publish unfounded claims about the environmental credentials of their pr
  
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• Labor far outspends Coalition and Clive Palmer on Google and Meta ads amid calls for change to blackout laws

  02-05-2025 10:59
  Analysis of online ad data shows parties and affiliated groups spent more than $39m for political ads across Facebook, YouTube and Google search since 28 MarchElection 2025 results LIVE: Australia votes tracker and federal seat countsAustralia federal election 2025 LIVE – latest news, updates and resultsLabor splurged more than $11m across Google and Meta platforms to win votes, far surpassing its opponents – including billionaire Clive Palmer – and outstripping political foes
  
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• UK watchdog bans coffee pod ads over ‘misleading’ composting claims

  30-04-2025 07:00
  Advertising Standards Authority says neither Lavazza UK nor Dualit’s product can be recycled at homeDescriptions of coffee pods as “compostable eco capsules” were misleading as they could not be composted at home, the Advertising Standards Authority has ruled.The ASA has banned adverts by Lavazza UK and Dualit, which both made claims about the eco credentials of their coffee products. Continue reading...
  
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• Fibs and exaggeration have always been part of politics – but who knows what lies are now being pushed online? | Julianne Schultz

  26-04-2025 22:00
  The old regulatory tools need new teeth if our democratic institutions are to do their jobMaybe, once upon a time, if one politician accused another of not being able to lie straight in bed, as Peter Dutton goaded Anthony Albanese on Tuesday night, it might have cut through. It might have caused voters to think such a person told lies and was untrustworthy.Politicians, like other human beings, have always fibbed – exaggerating, omitting, or misspeaking. Continue reading...
  
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• ASA bans Brazilian liquid butt lift ads from six UK cosmetic treatment providers

  16-04-2025 07:00
  Providers reprimanded for pressuring customers, exploiting women’s insecurities or trivialising medical risksThe Advertising Standards Authority has reprimanded six cosmetic treatment providers for pressuring customers, exploiting women’s insecurities or trivialising medical risks after an investigation into adverts for liquid Brazilian butt lifts (BBLs).The cosmetic procedure, which involves injecting fillers into the buttocks to enhance their shape and size, is unregulated in the U
  
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• ‘Ghost stores’: the online retailers promoting closing-down sales for physical shops that don’t exist

  12-04-2025 22:00
  
  Australia’s consumer watchdog says it is investigating complaints of social media ads purporting to be from local boutiquesElection 2025 live updates: Australia federal election campaignGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcast“With tears in our eyes, we must share the news with you,” the ads, which have been sponsored to appear on people’s social media feeds, begin. “After so many years of love and dedication to our Maison Canberra boutique,
  
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• Big brands send out barrage of junk food ads before obesity rules bite

  12-04-2025 20:37
  Advertising on snacks rises 26% compared with last year, months before restrictions on promoting unhealthy food come into forceBig food brands dramatically increased their spending on advertising last year, months before new junk food regulations aiming to curb Britain’s obesity crisis are due to come into force, the Observer can reveal.Food companies spent an extra £420m in 2024, an increase of 26% year on year that coincided with a bumper 12 months for sales of snack foods. Shopper
  
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