ASA Adjudication on Slimming World

Ad

A TV ad for Slimming World showed a woman eating pizza and carried a claim "Lose 10lbs in 21 days or your money back".

Issue

Weight Watchers complained that the ad was irresponsible, because they believed the claimed specified weight loss was not compatable with accepted good medical and dietary practice

Response

Slimming World said they did not intend to use the ad again

The BACC said the ad was submitted at the last minute and was accepted for broadcast due to error; they said the ad would be qualified by further on-screen text if it ran again.

Assessment

Complaint upheld

The ASA considered that, because the ad promised a specific weight loss and the rate and amount of the weight loss was not compatible with good medical and dietary practice, the ad was irresponsible.  We told Slimming World to ensure future ads did not predict a specific weight loss or advocate a rate of weight loss that was incompatible with accepted good medical and dietary practice.

The ad breached the CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rule 8.4.3 (Predictions of weight loss).

Action

The advertising must not be broadcast again in its current form.