‘Misleading’ government campaign tied to arts funding reported to advertising watchdog

A watchdog is assessing whether a requirement for arts groups to publicise a government campaign in order to obtain lifeline funding broke strict rules around advertising.  

A complaint was made to the Advertising Standards Authority after the demand was revealed by The Independent.  

In a statement, the ASA said that the complaint centred on whether the resultant social media posts “are misleading because they are advertising on behalf of the government and, as such, should be clearly labelled as ads”.  

The organisation said it would now “carefully assess the posts”.  

The money was part of the £1.5bn Culture Recovery Fund announced over the summer after ministers were accused of abandoning the arts industry.

A furious row erupted after large parts of the sector were forced to remain shut even as pubs and restaurants reopened after lockdown.   

Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, has insisted the money shows ministers are “here” for the arts.

But confidential documents seen by The Independent show the recipients were told “in receiving this funding, you are agreeing to acknowledge this funding publicly” and “we require you to welcome this funding on your social media accounts (using #HereForCulture)”.

They were also told they would have to mention the grant on their website “using the Here For Culture logo”.

They would be sent “useful wording” to help them “with this work”.

The Here For Culture logo is branded “HM Government”.

Angry industry insiders hit back at the requirements, calling them “galling”.  

One said: “The grant recipients have always been here for culture. It’s hard to believe a government that has left our freelance colleagues high and dry feels the same.”

Mr Dowden has defended the requirements, saying: “It is perfectly reasonable that organisations receiving money from the Culture Recovery Fund were asked to publicly accredit the government funding and alert local media.”  

A spokesperson for the ASA said: “I can confirm that we have received a complaint about several posts by cultural organisations, appearing across social media platforms, featuring the hashtag #HereForCulture to signpost their thanks to the government for receiving a grant from the Culture Recovery Fund.

“The complainant, who understands that the organisations had to credit the fund and mention the government’s ‘Here For Culture’ campaign on social media as a condition of receiving the grant, has challenged whether the posts are misleading because they are advertising on behalf of the government and, as such, should be clearly labelled as ads.

“We have just received the complaint and will carefully assess the posts to establish if this is covered by our remit and, if so, whether there are any grounds for further action.”  

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport has been approached for comment.