Adverts featuring Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett for nutrition brands Zoe and Huel have been banned after it was ruled they failed to disclose their commercial relationship with the celebrity entrepreneur.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has said the adverts, which were seen on Facebook in February, “omitted material information” about their links to Bartlett.
Bartlett, who made his fortune after co-founding Social Chain in Manchester, is an investor in Zoe and a director at Huel.
Zoe offers health testing and dietary advice services while Huel is known for its vitamin-enriched food items and also counts the likes of Idris Elba and Jonathan Ross among its investors.
The ASA found the two adverts for Huel and one for Zoe were misleading or likely to mislead consumers.
Brands defend banned adverts
The advert for Zoe featured an image of Bartlett with a Zoe patch on his arm, with text in the form of a quote from Bartlett which stated: “If you haven’t tried Zoe yet, give it a shot. It might just change your life.”
Defending the ad, Zoe said the average consumer would understand that there was a commercial relationship if a celebrity appeared in an ad for a brand, and argued that the consumer did not need to know the exact nature of that relationship.
The company added that if it was obliged to include a specific disclosure about the nature of Bartlett’s status as an investor in Zoe, this would have a wider impact on other brands and influencers.
Huel, whose ads featured Bartlett stating that its Daily Greens powder was the “best product” it had released, 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 added.
However the ASA found that many consumers were unlikely to understand from the ads that Bartlett had a financial interest in Huel’s performance.
It said: “We considered that Bartlett’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 added: “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 Bartlett 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.
Huel, Zoe and Bartlett have been approached for comment.
Who is Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett?
Bartlett made his fortune after dropping out of Manchester Metropolitan University to co-found Social Chain.
He led the company as its chief executive until 2020 and has since gone on to found Thirdweb and Flight Story in London.
He also runs and hosts The Diary of a CEO podcast which has become one of the most popular in the UK.
Bartlett also founded private equity firm Catena Capital and joined the board of Huel in December 2020.
In 2021 he became the youngest panel member on the BBC’s hit show, Dragons’ Den.
What are Huel and Zoe?
Huel is headquartered in Hertfordshire and was founded in 2014 by Julian Hearn.
The business makes plant-based meals, snacks, drinks, and food supplements
For the 12 months to July 31, 2023, Huel posted a revenue of £184.4m, up from £144.3m, while went from making a pre-tax loss of £10.6m to £4.6m.
In February 2023, the ASA banned two Huel adverts after ruling that claims the company could help people save money were misleading.
The ASA also said that one of the ads violated the rules on making health claims about products.
In November 2023, the boss of Huel said the UK’s flagging initial public offering market has made a London listing less attractive, as he admitted the group was open to being acquired.
Zoe is a wellness startup which was founded in 2017.
The business recently raised $15m (£11.7m) to help fund its expansion into the US.
Zoe provides at-home testing kits for customers to find out their blood fat, blood sugar and gut microbiome health.
The results are then used by the firm’s platform to create personalised gut health nutrition programmes via data science and AI.
It is backed by the likes of Balderton Capital, Innovation Capital and Bartlett’s Flight Fund.
Bartlett launched Flight Fund in January 2023 seeking to back the next generation of businesses aiming for a $1bn valuation. Zoe was its first investment.