ASA clamps down on ‘recommended links’

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has put its foot down on third-party ‘recommended links’ that appear on news websites, calling into question the way newsbrands present ad-related content alongside editorial.

Prompted by an advertisement under the heading “You may also like these”, titled ‘Keep Your Email Private!’ and created by content discovery platform Outbrain Inc, a complainant challenged whether the link was identifiable as a third-party ad.

Upholding the complaint, the ASA said that consumers would not necessarily realise that the various different ‘recommendations’ included formed part of the same ‘panel’ and that they might not notice the “Recommended by” text, which appeared in the bottom corner.

The ASA said that because the ad was not “obviously identifiable as marketing communication, we concluded that it was misleading.”

The ruling means the ad – whose publisher was not identified in the ruling – must not appear again in its current form.

In response to the complaint, Outbrain said that through the use of technology it could “recommend relevant material” either via paid-for links to third-party sites or links to other content on a publisher’s site.

Outbrain maintained that its approach was in line with industry standard practices and that it used the text “You may also like these” and “Recommended by” to identify the paid-for ads linked to third-party sites.

While Outbrain said that the average Internet user would be aware of the different types of ads, the ASA ruled that Outbrain must ensure future advertising placed by the company was “obviously identifiable” as such.