The Advertising (Less Healthy Food and Drink) (Brand Advertising Exemption) Regulations 2025

Exemption to prohibitions for brand advertising

2.—(1) A brand advertisement is—

(a) prescribed for the purposes of section 321A(3)(b) of the Communications Act 2003 (“the Act”), and

(b) exempted from the prohibitions imposed by sections 368FA(1) and 368Z14(1) of the Act.

(2) In paragraph (1), “brand advertisement” means an advertisement that promotes a brand, including the brand of a range of products, but does not include an advertisement to which any of paragraphs (3), (4) or (5) apply.

(3) This paragraph applies to an advertisement the content of which depicts a specific less healthy food or drink product, unless—

(a) such depiction of the product is only by way of the name of the product, including where the name of the product appears in the logo of a company, franchise or other commercial entity or in the logo of a brand of a range of products, and

(b) that product’s name falls within paragraph (6).

(4) This paragraph applies to an advertisement that promotes a brand the name of which is also the name of a specific less healthy food or drink product, unless that product’s name falls within paragraph (6).

(5) This paragraph applies to an advertisement the content of which includes a realistic image of a food or drink product where—

(a) the realistic image shows the food or drink itself and is not only of the product’s packaging, and

(b) the food or drink product is visually indistinguishable from a specific less healthy food or drink product.

(6) A product’s name falls within this paragraph if the full name of that product—

(a) is the name or is included in the name of a company, franchise or other commercial entity which was established before 16th July 2025 and which held that name immediately before that date;

(b) is the name of the brand of a range of products, where that brand—

(i) was in use, as the brand of that range, for the purposes of marketing, advertising or retail sale immediately before 16th July 2025;

(ii) held that name immediately before 16th July 2025.

(7) In this regulation—

(a) “depict” means to represent by way of name, text, imagery, logo, audio cue, jingle, brand character or other branding technique or combination of branding techniques;

(b) “less healthy” has the same meaning as sections 321A(4)(c), 368FA(4)(c) and 368Z14(5)(e) of the Act;

(c) “range of products” means a group of related food or drink products (whether or not those products are less healthy) and such group—

(i) may include a group of products composed of variants of a product, such as different flavours, but

(ii) may not include a group of products where such products are differentiated only by pack size or packaging format, such as carton, tin, block or bag;

(d) “specific” in relation to a food or drink product, means that the food or drink product—

(i) is capable of being purchased, and

(ii) is differentiated from other products capable of being purchased, unless it is only differentiated from such other products by pack size or packaging format such as carton, tin, block or bag;

(e) “a realistic image” means—

(i) a photograph,

(ii) a video recording, or

(iii) an image, whether still or moving, and however created or altered, that is so realistic as to make it indistinguishable, for all practical purposes, from a photograph or video recording.