Seven Government advertorials published on regional Reach websites have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) following complaints from two Labour MPs that they were not obviously identifiable as adverts.

The advertising appeared on Grimsby Live, Derbyshire Live, Birmingham Live, Leicestershire Live, Chronicle Live in Newcastle, Cornwall Live and Wales Online websites on 13 March.

The articles carried the headline “Levelling Up! What is it and what does it mean for [place name]?”, the text “By Millie Reeves Commercial Writer”, a grey box with the word “advertorial” in block capitals and an infographic including the HM Government logo.

Labour MPs Lisa Nandy and Alex Norris complained to ASA that the adverts were not obviously identifiable as such.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) said they believed the advertorial labelling was both visible and prominent. They explained that block capitals were used in the word “ADVERTORIAL” and that it was set within a frame.

They clarified that the labelling was in Reach Plc’s house style and common practice across all of their titles. They said publishers were responsible for ensuring content was correctly labelled and followed guidelines.

Reach Plc said they considered all of the ads to be obviously identifiable as marketing communications for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. They explained that all of the ads were shown in the “Partner Stories” section of the website.

The ads featured a grey box with the label “ADVERTORIAL” prominently placed on the top right-hand side. They emphasised that the label travelled down as the reader scrolled down the page. However, they later confirmed that this technical feature was not in place at the time of the campaign, and therefore, would not have been seen by readers of the ads.

ASA noted that while the ads were labelled, the statements did not reference the DLUHC and it was not clear from the text that the subsequent article would also be an ad.

The ASA said the “advertorial” label on the homepage was small and likely to be overlooked by readers who would also understand the byline “Millie Reeves Commercial Writer” to mean that the article was a piece of editorial content.

The ASA said: “We therefore concluded that the ads were not obviously identifiable as marketing communications.

“The ads must not appear again in their current form. We told the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and Reach Plc to ensure that all future marketing communications were prominently and clearly identifiable as such.”