The HM UK Government spent an eye-watering £36,825,288 of taxpayer cash on social media advertising in 2025. Got to keep the people updated on those U-turns somehow…
Labour spent the most amount of cash on Google adverts at £16 million, while TikTok spend ramped up in the final three months of the year to £259,102 in December. The central government didn’t spend any money on advertising on X. Presumably over its hatred of Elon Musk…
Paymaster-General Nick Thomas-Symonds insists “Digital and social media channels enable us to reach audiences more cost-effectively, delivering better value from communications budgets.” Right…
Co-conspirators may remember the humorous Coinbase cryptocurrency advert that was banned for its satirical take on the ‘everything is falling apart’ narrative. The Advertising Standards Authority has produced its ruling on the advert and upheld complaints. The advert was “irresponsible.” Their decision:
“We acknowledged that ad (a) was satirical, and consumers were likely to understand that some of the financial hardships depicted in the ad had been exaggerated for humorous effect. Nevertheless, they were based on real financial concerns which many consumers would have lived experience of. We considered that using humour to reference serious financial concerns, alongside a cue to “change”, risked presenting complex, high-risk financial products as an easy or obvious response to those concerns. We further considered that the mediums in which the ads were seen were likely to have a broad reach – the VOD ad was seen on multiple platforms, and the poster ads were seen in high-traffic areas such as London underground and rail stations. It was therefore likely that many consumers experiencing the financial issues referenced in the ads would see them, and be vulnerable to the implication that Coinbase and cryptocurrency could address their financial concerns.
Because the ads implied that cryptocurrency could be an alternative to the prevalent financial concerns associated with the cost of living, we considered that they trivialised the risks associated with cryptocurrency investment. We therefore concluded the ads were irresponsible.”
Reinforcing the point of the advert there…
Reform says it will go ahead with an advertising “blitz” after being “flooded” with a whopping £400,000 of donations in 24 hours alone after its 5,000-strong rally in Birmingham over the weekend. Reform says all that the bulk of that support is from small grassroots donors as its membership doubles from 30,000 to 60,000 over the course of the campaign so far. Meanwhile over an entire week the Tories only pocketed £375,000…
Social media advertising is being run from Farage’s account instead of Reform’s. Expect to see the party plastered over papers and websites (it already executed a Mail Online takeover) in the last few days of the campaign as the party hammers home its “we’re the real opposition” message. A strong feat for a startup party…
Politicians seem to be losing track of what they have already banned. On page 41 of the Tory manifesto it says:
“We will bring forward our landmark Tobacco and Vapes Bill in our first King’s Speech. We will continue to tackle childhood and adult obesity and will legislate to restrict the advertising of products high in fat, salt and sugar. We will gather new evidence on the impact of ultraprocessed food to support people to make healthier choices.”
Apart from tucking away Sunak’s “landmark” smoke ban legislation in the middle of the health and social care section and giving it a 15-word sentence, the Tories appear to be promising to ban already-banned products here. The Health and Care Act 2022 has already legislated that:
“On-demand programme services must not, between 5.30 am and 9.00 pm, include advertisements for an identifiable less healthy food or drink product… a person must not pay for advertisements for an identifiable less healthy food or drink product to be placed on the internet.”
There is, of course, no evidence to suggest that “junk food” advertisement bans work – not that that will stop both parties aggressively out-nannying each other. The government failed to clarify how this will all work via regulation and it looks like Labour is being left to sort it out themselves. No doubt they will go a deal further…
UnHerd is reporting that the Foreign Secretary has acted in response to concerns raised by the Business Secretary, Kemi Badenoch, highlighting a Foreign Office-funded NGO – the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) – manipulating legitimate counter-disinformation efforts to provide cover for the undermining of right-of-centre online publications by blacklisting them with advertisers.
Cameron confirmed in writing that “the FCDO has not funded GDI since 2023, and there are no current plans to do so.” UnHerd reports that Dave then underlined that section by hand, and added, a handwritten “thanks for pointing this out.”
Dave wrote that while countering disinformation from adversaries was important, “protecting free speech is a priority for the department”, going on to say that taxpayers funds should be used to “uphold our values”.
Separately, the Chair of the Select Committee on Communications and Digital in the Lords, Baroness Stowell has written to ministers in the Foreign Office and other departments with responsibility for Media and Creative Industries as well as Tech and the Digital Economy, looking for clarification in regard to GDI funding and influence. Looks like the days of the taxpayer funding efforts to defund non-woke media are over.
Lucy Powell on LBC, asked by Tom Swarbrick for her reaction to Labour MP Samantha Niblett’s call for a ‘summer of sex’ debate in Parliament: “I personally don’t own any sex toys, but each to their own… I’m not really sure that’s the right place for it, no.”
