Last August, social media personality Katie Price posted a Reel on Instagram promoting Skinny Food Co.'s products by taking viewers through her daily diet.
However, the short advert was recently banned by an advertising watchdog, drawing controversy months after the ad was posted.
What Was in Price's Reel?
In the video, Price detailed the different meals she would eat in a day, noting that it amounted to a total of only 755 calories.
The diet consisted of porridge and a cup of coffee with zero-calorie syrup for breakfast, a wrap with zero-calorie garlic mayonnaise for lunch, a low-calorie chicken tikka curry for dinner, and low-calorie chocolate malt balls for a post-dinner snack.
"All of this was only 755 calories and helping me stay in a calorie deficit to shift some extra pounds when needed," the 45-year-old former glamour model captioned in her post.
Additionally, Price also said her children "loved" Skinny Food Co's offerings, and that she likes to go on a calorie deficit on bad days so it won't turn into a bad week.
However, Price's calorie count drew attention from netizens claiming she irresponsibly promoted a diet below the recommended calorie count.
The ASA's Findings
Our recommended daily caloric intake is 2,000 kcal for women and 2,500 kcal for men.
In the UK, ads that explicitly promote diets below 800 calories must only be recommended for short-term use with the warning that people need to seek medical advice before going on the diet.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) reported receiving two complaints citing these reasons.
It found that the commercial included no specific instruction to follow the diet for only a short period, nor did it advise viewers to first consult their doctors.
"For the above reasons, we concluded that the ad irresponsibly promoted a diet that fell below 800 kcal a day," the ASA ruling explained.
Eventually, we learned that the influencer had taken her Reel down following the ad ban.
Skinny Food Co's spot with Price is the latest to join a slate of ads taken down for failing to align with the ASA's standards.
On Wednesday, we also reported how Nationwide's Dominic West Commercial was flagged by the ASA for being "misleading."