Scottish Power advert featuring TV architect George Clarke banned by watchdog

An advert for Scottish Power featuring architect and television presenter George Clarke has been banned for leading viewers to think they were watching a programme.

The TV ad, seen on Channel 4 in July, included text stating “George Clarke’s amazing green spaces”, before Clarke himself said: “I’ve seen some amazing spaces all around the UK. From great tree houses, to log cabins, and house boats. Oh, and don’t forget about the hobbit house in Gwent, that was truly amazing.”

As houses of different colours were shown, he continued: “From yellow houses, blue houses, pink houses, and … greener houses, like this one. Of course, it’s not about the colour, it’s all about the green solutions provided by Scottish Power. So why not make your amazing space even more amazing by turning it a little greener?”

The first 12 seconds of the ad contained the text “#ad” in the top right corner.

Three viewers complained that the ad was not obviously distinguishable from George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces television programme.

Scottish Power said they believed the ad was clearly recognisable as such throughout.

Aside from the “#ad”, it mentioned Scottish Power products, there were verbal references to Scottish Power within Clarke’s dialogue and the Scottish Power logo featured on the back of the jacket of one individual and in the end frame.

Overall, 43 seconds out of the total 60-second clip contained a visual identifier which signalled to the viewer that it was an ad.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the ad aired during breaks around George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces TV show.

The ad used the same font and style of text as the programme, and it was also set against a background of greenery in the same way it was presented in Clarke’s show.

The watchdog said the “#ad” in the top right corner for the first 12 seconds was “insufficient to mitigate the other elements in the ad, which were reminiscent of George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces television programme”.

It said: “As such, we considered viewers were likely to believe, at least initially, that they were watching a programme.”

The ASA continued: “Given the similarity between the beginning of the ad and the television programme, we considered the audience were likely to interpret the ad as programme content.

“For the reasons given, 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.”

A Scottish Power spokeswoman said its “advertising partnership with George Clarke and C4’s Amazing Spaces brought together everything we strive to do for customers”.