RTÉ has confirmed that it approved an ad campaign for a non-surgical butt lift, posted by the new presenter of Ireland’s Fittest Family Laura Fox. 

Fox, who also works as a weekend presenter for 2FM radio, was announced as the fresh face of the popular TV show in June 2023. 

She replaced Mairead Ronan, who left the show last spring after a decade at its helm. 

Earlier this week, Fox posted a series of videos to her Instagram account, detailing her experience with “Lanluma injections” from a Dublin skin clinic, which would have cost her up to €5,000 if paid out of her own pocket. 

Fox has 27,100 followers on her Instagram account where she describes herself as a presenter on RTÉ 2FM and host of Ireland’s Fittest Family. She also gives the contact details of her agent at the Millar Agency for brands seeking to work with her to promote their products. 

On its website, the Dublin clinic advertises these injections as a way to “beautify, enhance and correct most buttock shapes” and says they are “perfect for adding volume to lift ageing buttocks or to enhance patients who are worried about ‘hip dips’”.

“Hip dips” are a natural feature of some people’s bodies and are caused by the shape of a person’s pelvis. 

The clinic states that Lanluma can be used by customers to “enhance their natural curves in the buttocks, while improving the appearance of skin irregularities like cellulite, and overall skin rejuvenation”.

The videos posted by Fox were hashtagged “gifted” and “ad”. She also appears in a video posted on the clinic’s own Instagram account.

The Currency asked RTÉ whether the ad for the procedure had been approved by the station, and whether it believed that the promotion of “hip dip” fixers, or non-essential injections intended to aesthetically “correct” a person’s body, fit with the values of the TV show  Ireland’s Fittest Family.

RTÉ replied that permission for the ad had “been sought and was given in this instance”. The station had no further comment to make. 

When asked further questions the station said it had “no further comment to make” and would not divulge when approval for the ad had been granted. 

Fox, contacted for comment through her agency, had not responded at the time of publication.

RTÉ’s policies on the social media accounts of its stars have come under scrutiny over the past few months as incidents of presenters using the station’s campus as a playground for their own commercial campaigns were repeatedly highlighted. 

These included an ad for instant porridge taken in a 2FM studio and posted online by presenter Doireann Garrihy and an ad for a car manufacturer shot in the car park of the broadcaster and posted on Lottie Ryan’s social media accounts. Most recently GAA pundits on The Sunday Game have been found to promote clothing brands through the show, without RTÉ’s permission. The pundits include Tomás Ó Sé, Lee Keegan, Jackie Tyrrell,  Seán Cavanagh and Paul Flynn, who is also a columnist for The Currency.

The fall-out from the blurry blending of commercial and editorial work by those being paid by the public service broadcaster was one sub-plot of the Ryan Tubridy payments scandal, which has rolled on through the summer. 

Consequently, RTÉ pledged to tighten its control on the type of commercial work undertaken by its public faces and to put in place a register of interests to track the perks enjoyed by its stars. 

It has not been made clear by the station whether the register of interests will be made public, despite political pressure. In an email to RTÉ staff earlier this month, director general Kevin Bakhurst wrote: “Regarding publication of the register, RTÉ is engaging with stakeholders, including the Data Protection Officer, as part of the preparations.”

Further reading

Payments scandal helps explain why independent producers love/hate RTÉ

Ian Kehoe, the editor of The Currency, is on the board of RTÉ. He is a member of the Audit & Risk Committee of the board that commissioned the Grant Thornton report. He was not involved in the editing of this article nor did he see it prior to publication.