By Liam McCloy, Head of Public Affairs, EMEA Food Agribusiness Beverage Lead
Image credit: Andres Castro via Unsplash
The UK advertising restrictions relating to less healthy food (LHF) products on broadcast and paid online channels that went into effect at the beginning of 2026 represent the latest (but not the last) round of regulations imposed on the food and drink marketing. Much of the response to date has focused on what they do and don’t cover and how to exploit or enforce them.
In short, it’s the same conversation that took place when we had regulations restricting volume and placement. And very likely, the same conversation that will take place when the UK Government goes further with regulation and seeks to apply a fresh version of the 2004 Nutritional Profiling Model (NPM) to the advertising and promotional regs and also when things become clearer on the proposed ‘Healthy Food Standard’ which will set targets for the sales of ‘unhealthy’ v. ‘healthy’ foods and allow the multiple retailers to decide best how to achieve them. We believe it’s time to ask whether this is the right conversation to be having.
If we take a step back, the LHF advertising restrictions impact a business in broadly three ways:
- Driving or limiting your commercial sales & marketing
- Reinforcing or compromising your corporate / brand reputation
- Damaging or advancing your licence to operate
These all reinforce each other. But businesses often handle these impacts in separate silos, taking each regulation as it comes and not working through how best to shape the overall direction of travel. The siloed approach misses the bigger picture: These regulations don’t just impact short term growth. They ultimately undermine trust and credibility in products and in the industry that makes them, and that undermines licence to operate.
Efforts from NGOs and activists comparing food industry behaviours to regulated products like tobacco and alcohol compound the risk. In an era when ‘sounds true’ is as important as ‘is true,’ the industry rightly feels stung but sometimes continues to respond in ways that echo those other sectors. Taking refuge in risk to jobs and investment or trying to offset through the latest CSR initiatives can’t meaningfully mitigate the problem.
Nevertheless, by digging into the detail of the latest LHF regulations, we can find some specific strategic communications opportunities — accompanied by a myriad of challenges — for food and drink businesses:
- Pivot from product promotion to brand advertising – The 2026 regulations target television advertising for LHF food and drink before 9pm and paid online activities 24/7. Food and drink companies with more than 250 employees (SMEs are exempt) should make sure they are compliant with the regs if they are planning:
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- Paid-for listings on price comparison or aggregator services, such as sponsored listings on food delivery services
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- Paid-for online display advertising, such as banner ads on news websites and apps, swipe to buy
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- Paid-for online social media advertising, such as in-feed advertising on social media
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- Paid-for search listings, such as sponsored links on search engines
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- Paid-for creator marketing, such as influencer content sponsored by an advertiser
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- Paid-for newsletter advertising, such as banner ads in a cookery newsletter
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- Paid-for advertisements distributed through web widgets, such as those located on the sidebar of websites
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- Paid-for advertorials
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- Paid-for advergames
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- Paid-for sponsorship
(Source: IAB 4.12.26)
So companies will now rely more heavily on brand associations, characters, and emotive campaigns, but it’s worth noting that if the name of your brand or product range is the same as the full name of a specific LHF product, you will not be able to use it. This prevents marketeers from creating new companies, brand names, or product range names that are the same name as a LHF product in your portfolio to get round the rules.
- Shining a spotlight on the channel mix – While it’s not possible for food and drink brands to advertise LHF products before the TV watershed or via paid online activities, such products can continue to be advertised on radio and podcasts as long as they contain no visual elements, via outdoor media (digital and traditional), and non-paid for marketing on your owned digital channels (including websites, apps, email, CRM, and organic social content), in owned physical spaces (like restaurants), on owned physical assets like menus, merchandising and packaging, and via earned media and PR. Other exemptions include B2B ads as well as ads not aimed at a UK audience. But for how long? NGOs are compiling dossiers with case studies on these loopholes, and some politicians have reasoned that companies wouldn’t plough money into such channels if there wasn’t a sales ROI. So, as we consider a potential future round of further rulemaking, the impact on sales will only be one consideration, and the central question will be whether such tactics are evidence of evading the spirit of the rules?
- Learning from upheld complaints – If the advertising regulator (ASA) finds that an ad has broken the rules, the advertiser will need to amend or take down the ad. If the breach is serious or the advertiser keeps breaking the rules, they could be liable for fines. Given all of this, companies marketing HFSS products will be under scrutiny like never before. Therefore, brands should adopt a 360-degree view of the exposure and expectations regarding your marketing practices.
So, what can companies do to adapt their marketing, communications, and advocacy?
Firstly, brands who switch their focus to earned media could see dividends from identifying and understand the authentic role(s) for their brand(s) in culture. Many of the product brands affected by the HFSS advertising and promotional restrictions provide genuine moments of social connection which apply to a multitude of cultural affinity spaces that can provide the perfect context to showcase the product.
Secondly, nearly all conversations about brands happen without brand involvement. That’s where reputations are made — and broken. Fans are the most leaned-in version of a customer; they routinely share stories and content about the things they are passionate about. Brand actions go beyond experiential, so think about all the ways in which the brand can show up in culture and how each moment creates a narrative opportunity for fans and communities.
Thirdly, there is an opportunity for the food and drink industry to broaden out the conversation beyond jobs and investment. Those with the power to restrict licence to operate might believe that better economic growth will come from other industries. Focus instead on the bigger problem that policy makers are trying to solve, such as driving macro productivity improvements and lessening the burden on our national health service. Will restricting LHF marketing ensure that fewer LHF products are sold? Maybe… Will fewer LHF products sold make people less obese? Unlikely… How long are policymakers going to wait before they call this? Not long enough…. How long are policy makers going to wait before they go further? They already are…. political cycles are short!
Consequently, the food and drink industry should redouble its efforts to convince the current UK Government that there is no silver bullet to tackling obesity and, instead of going further faster down the same track, they need to look elsewhere if they want to make meaningful progress. Here’s the trickier bit: The industry also must show them what that looks like and explain when the benefits will materialise.
To conclude, we can see that the latest round of advertising and marketing restrictions for less healthy foods provide both challenges and opportunities for marketeers. But, if food and drink companies are hoping for a period of respite from new waves of regulation or restrictions in the UK, they will be disappointed. Now might be a good time to pause and take a strategic look at the direction of travel here regarding the regulation of less healthy foods and how food and drink brands in this space can shape their destiny rather than have it defined by others.
