Adverts featuring star have been pulled as they breached regulations.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned Steven’s adverts for nutrition brands Zoe and Huel because they failed to disclose their commercial relationship with
The regulator ruled the ads, seen on in February, were misleading or likely to mislead consumers as they ‘omitted material information’ about their links to The Diary Of A CEO star.
The 31-year-old’s fund invested in Zoe, which offers testing and dietary advice services, and a director at Huel, known for its vitamin-enriched food items.
The advert for Zoe featured an image of Steven with a Zoe patch on his arm, with text in the form of a quote from him which stated: ‘If you haven’t tried Zoe yet, give it a shot. It might just change your life.’
Defending the ad, a Zoe spokesperson told Metro.co.uk argued regulations do not stipulate companies need to go into ‘granular details’ about their relationship with an ambassador and welcomed ‘further guidance’.
They continued: ‘Our ad was posted from the Zoe Facebook account, with the “Sponsored” label, clearly marking it as an ad. The ASA acknowledged, in its ruling, that the ad was indeed “obviously identifiable’” as a marketing communication.
‘Neither the Code nor any of the ASA’s guidance suggests that it is necessary to go into granular detail about the precise nature of an ambassador’s commercial relationship with a brand. We believe the ad was compliant with the Cap Code.
‘We respect the ASA’s work in upholding transparency in online advertising and have provided a written assurance that it will not appear again in that form. We would welcome further guidance to bring clarity on the effect of this decision, to ensure that all our future advertising complies with the Cap Code.’
Meanwhile, Huel’s ads featured Steven stating that its Daily Greens powder was the ‘best product’ it had released.
However, the company argued that consumers had no doubt about the existence of such commercial relationships when they saw the endorsement within a paid-for ad taken out by a company.
This expectation removed the need for the commercial relationship to be explicitly stated, Huel claimed.
However, the ASA found that many consumers were unlikely to understand from the ads that Steven had a financial interest in Huel’s performance.
It said: ‘We considered that Barlett’s directorship was material to consumers’ understanding of the ads, and so relevant for them in making an informed decision about the advertised product.
‘Because the ads omitted material information about Steven Bartlett’s position as a director at Huel, we concluded they were likely to mislead.’
In relation to Zoe, the regulator said: ‘Steven Bartlett was an investor in Zoe, which we considered was material to consumers’ understanding of the ad and relevant in making an informed decision about the product.
‘Because the ad omitted material information about Steven Bartlett being an investor in Zoe, we concluded that it was misleading.’
The regulator also banned a podcast advert for Huel in 2022, in which Steven said during a segment on his highly successful The Diary Of A CEO show that he had ‘become hooked on’ an iced coffee caramel-flavour Huel drink.
Steven began his business career as the founder and former CEO of The Social Chain, a social media marketing agency.
He started the agency in his bedroom in Manchester when he was just 22 years old.
The agency went public when Steven was 27, and in May 2021, it had a market value of over £300million.
While he’s still the founder, Steven left as Social Chain’s CEO in December 2020 to pursue other ventures.
The company later sold for a rumoured £7.7million in a deal with social and digital media group Brave Bison.
He’s gone on to found Catena Capital, a private equity investment firm, as well as co-founding an app builder called Third Web and an investment platform called Flight Story.
Steven joined Dragons’ Den in 2022 and has also branched out into other media mediums, most notably Diary of a CEO, on which he has interviewed guests and Lewis Capaldi.
Metro.co.uk has contacted reps for Steven, Huel and Zoe for comment.
