Scottish Power advert featuring architect George Clarke banned by watchdog

A TV advertisement for Scottish Power featuring the architect George Clarke has been banned for misleading viewers into thinking they were watching his Channel 4 show Amazing Spaces.

The promotion ran on the same channel as the show, during its ad breaks, and opened with the text “George Clarke’s amazing green spaces” in the same font and style as the real programme.

Clarke then appeared, saying: “I’ve seen some amazing spaces all around the UK. From yellow houses, blue houses, pink houses, and … greener houses. Of course, it is not about the colour, it’s all about the green solutions provided by Scottish Power.”

The Scottish Power advert about ‘green’ spaces ran in the ad break of George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces programme and featured a similar font to the show itself. Photograph: @ScottishPower

The advert featured the text #ad in the corner for 12 seconds while the end of the commercial used the Scottish Power logo alongside the company’s name.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the UK’s advertising watchdog, received three complaints that the ad was not obviously distinguishable from George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces. The architect also presents George Clarke’s Old House New Home and George Clarke’s Remarkable Renovations on the same channel.

Scottish Power said Clarke made three verbal references to Scottish Power and that 43 seconds of the 60-second advert contained a “visual identifier” making it obvious it was an advert.

The UK advertising code states that an ad must be “obviously distinguishable” from editorial content, especially if it uses a “situation, performance or style reminiscent of editorial content”, to prevent confusing audiences.

The ASA said the #ad symbol was small, “likely to be overlooked” and was “insufficient to mitigate” the other elements of the clip that were designed to mimic the style of the TV show.

The watchdog also said that Scottish Power products were not mentioned until halfway through the ad, while the UK ad code states that audiences should be able to quickly recognise the message as a commercial.

“We considered the audience were likely to interpret the ad as programme content,” the ASA said in its ruling banning the ad. “We considered viewers were unlikely to quickly recognise the message as an ad distinguishable from editorial content and were instead likely to believe [they] were watching a programme.”