The Advertising Standards Authority has expressed extreme concern with advertising tactics of Express Newspapers. Apparently some advertorials have been disguised as features, which the ASA believes is an attempt to circumvent advertising code practices.

In its findings, the ASA noticed that some articles about products were featured on the same page as advertisements for the products, while being unusually favourable. They found that the articles read as “always and uniquely favourable to the product featured in the accompanying ads and contained claims that have been or would be likely to be prohibited in advertisements.”

Additionally, the ASA found that the Daily Express has run almost identical articles on a select group of products on multiple occasions. The Daily Express has been instructed to clearly label advertorials and to refrain from ever again making the claims made in those allegedly suspect articles already published.