We’ve recently carried out a piece of compliance work looking at how pet food is advertised. With a growing number of brands competing for owners’ attention (and their pets’ appetites), we wanted to make sure advertisers were getting their claims right.

We reviewed a wide range of pet food brands’ online advertising. Our monitoring sweep found that many ads compared products against those from other brands – and even with entirely different types of pet food. Where these comparison claims weren’t properly supported, or where they denigrated competitors many had the potential to break the rules.

We also noticed that a number of advertisers were making claims about the health benefits of their products. Advertisers making such claims are reminded that they must hold robust evidence, and where claims stray into promoting medicinal benefits for products that aren’t appropriately licensed, they break the rules regardless of any evidence held.

To improve compliance in the sector, we have issued advice to the advertisers we assessed in this project, reminding them of their responsibilities under the Code and encouraging them to make changes where needed. We’ve also published further guidance on pet food advertising to help advertisers get it right. Our work in this area will continue, and we won’t hesitate to take further action if we see repeated or serious breaches of the rules.

Pet food advertisers who want to make sure their ads are compliant from the outset can take advantage of CAP’s confidential Copy Advice service, which offers pre-publication advice on non-broadcast ads.