Huel advert banned for ‘encouraging’ replacing all meals with its products
The ad featured brand ambassador Spencer Matthews discussing a person he met who "only eats Huel" and who won a 260km race "by miles".
A advert for Huel meal replacement shakes has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for encouraging or condoning "irresponsible" dietary practices.
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The ad featured brand ambassador Spencer Matthews discussing a person he met who "only eats Huel" and who won a 260km race "by miles".
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said viewers could assume that replacing all conventional food with Huel would mean they could achieve elite physical performance and that the move would be "nutritionally appropriate".
Huel said Matthews' story was not intended as "a recommendation or instruction" and that the goal of the ad was to challenge the misconception that Huel could replace every meal.
The advert showed Matthews speaking to Huel founder Julian Hearn in a podcast-style format, and initially appeared as both a sponsored Instagram post and a YouTube pre-roll ad.
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On Instagram, the advert included the caption: "Here's how our founder uses Huel. Spoiler alert it's not for every meal."
In the ad, Hearn claimed he has Huel products for breakfast and lunch during the work week, but eats a "traditional meal" when he returns home.
Matthews responded that when he was taking part in an ultramarathon, he encountered a man who "only eats Huel".
He goes on to say he initially had his doubts that the man would be able to complete the race but then claimed: "He won it by miles, like literally just left us all in the dirt."
In response, Hearn said: "In an ideal world, you should have nutritionally complete whole food.
"Most people either don't do that or can't have the time to do that, and therefore that's where Huel fits in the gap."
The Hertfordshire-based brand was founded by Hearn in 2015 and is currently in the process of being bought by French firm Danone.
The ASA says it received four complaints about the ad, which questioned whether the content was irresponsible.
Two complainants also questioned whether the health claims in the ad breached the ASA's advertising code.
In its ruling, the ASA did acknowledge that the ad "did not explicitly recommend that consumers replace all conventional foods with Huel".
However, it added that consumers could nonetheless interpret the anecdote as "an acceptable dietary practice".
"By presenting exclusive consumption of Huel in that context, the ads suggested that the complete replacement of conventional food with Huel was nutritionally appropriate and presented no barrier to achieving a high level of physical performance," the ruling said.
Huel responded by saying the ad "unambiguously positioned Huel as part of a balanced diet for occasions when preparing whole food was not practicable".
"The anecdote was recounted as a remarkable and unexpected occurrence, not as a representative outcome or a recommendation or instruction to consumers to replicate.
"At no point in the ads did either speaker suggest that consumers should adopt a 100% Huel diet."