LHF Advertising: Turning Regulation into Creative Advantage

The UK’s Less Healthy Food (LHF) advertising restrictions mean that from January 2026, legislation will limit digital and TV advertising of High Fat Salf and Sugar (HFSS) products, and between October and December 2025, brands have a voluntary compliance phase to experiment without penalty.

While much of the industry debate has framed these changes as a creative constraint or a threat to brand storytelling, Azerion’s research demonstrates that the new era of compliance can, in fact, sharpen creativity and deepen consumer trust.

Brands shouldn’t be questioning how to survive the LHF deadline, but how to thrive after it, and the work we’ve done to date has served up a lot of food for thought...

The challenges ahead

Conversation across the advertising industry reflects anxiety and adaptation in equal measure.

Many agencies are predicting that Christmas investment in digital advertising will be significantly impacted, and some are questioning whether the ban will shift consumer demand or simply marketing spend in the longer term. In addition, a wider wellness movement is reshaping how consumers view indulgence and moderation, redefining ‘treat’ brands for 2026.

For marketers, the challenge is a double helping: how to remain compliant whilst keeping emotional resonance high.

Established brands with decades of exposure, and a legacy of distinctive brand assets have an obvious head start. But to help understand how younger or challenger brands can compete without legacy assets, we undertook a first-of-its-kind study.

Taking three LHF brands (chocolate, biscuits and fast-food), we tested four types of ad creative:

• Non-compliant (product-led).
  
• Story-led: content such as the brand’s backstory, milestones, ethical principles, etc, which can be anchored with compliant product cues.
  
• Brand-led: creatives that focus on the brand.
  
• Situation-led: the contextual environments in which the products might be consumed.
  
  

The results were decisive: story-led creatives were most effective (leading to a 14% increase in awareness, 97% rise in clarity, 58% uptake in positive opinion, and a 29% growth in purchase consideration); explicit product cues (‘chicken’, ‘chocolate’ and visual biscuit crumbs) maintained comprehension; brand- and situation-led ads worked for awareness but lacked persuasion. Overall, compliance itself increased trust, particularly among younger audiences.

Creative implications: rethinking strategy

The insight is clear: creativity and compliance can coexist and thrive, but…

…this testing shows that LHF brands should prioritise storytelling anchored by brand identity, not product glamour.

More than that, we found that:

• Story-led narratives work best when tailored by age. Younger audiences engage more intuitively with emotive storytelling, while older groups benefit from direct cues and clearer branding.
  
• Hybrid creative models: combining story-led engagement with brand-led reinforcement drives the strongest results, ensuring recognition without breaching compliance.
  
• Omnichannel execution is essential: DOOH, digital display, CTV (after 9pm), and audio all remain viable spaces where compliant formats can still achieve reach and resonance.
  
  

The objective of our research was to learn how best to support entities that aren’t (yet) household names. However, at our recent LHF event - held to provide agencies and brands (of all sizes) with insight on the new rules as well as a forum to explore their real-life implications - even well-known brands showed caution, with many adopting a ‘wait and see’ approach before matching past Christmas spending; these findings provided all with some much-needed clarity.

The ultimate responsibility for compliance lies with the brand. Our role as an advertising technology (adtech) platform, creative studio and research partner, will allow us to guide brands as they adapt to the new landscape and enable them to build compliant creatives, backed by behavioural data and real-time testing to ensure they are also effective.

From compliance to competitive edge

Brands will have had a three-month opportunity window to experiment, measure, and refine creative approaches before the rules are enforced. Some see the ban as a blunt instrument, but our research reframes it as a creative sorbet, something that merely cleanses the palate.

LHF restrictions should not be seen as a barrier to effectiveness; rather they are a chance to sharpen storytelling, clarify brand offerings, and build greater trust. In treating compliance this way, brands can elevate their position in consumers’ minds as transparent, ethical, and in-step with society's modern health consciousness.

The 2026 legislative landscape won’t merely test LHF advertising, it will reward those who can balance responsibility with resonance.