ASA Adjudication on Digital Hearing Aid Information Service Ltd

Ad

A national press ad, for a hearing aid, included the text “ … Audeo YES - the worlds [sic] only digital hearing aid that can fully restore your complete range of hearing! … And the world’s only aid that can actually bring back ALL the sounds that you are missing. It does this by using a unique technology called Sound Recover which actually broadens your hearing range by compressing and shifting high frequencies into an audible area you can hear … what it means is that once again you can hear the telephone, door bell, alarm clock, birds singing, leaves rustling, rain falling, water running, bacon or sausages sizzling in the pan, friends whispering to you and most importantly clearly understand and take part in conversations … even in noisy rooms!”. Small print stated “Certain hearing aids may not help all types of hearing loss … ”.

Issue

The complainant challenged whether the claim that the product " ... can fully restore your complete range of hearing!" was misleading and could be substantiated.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Invisible Hearing submitted evidence they believed supported the claim. The evidence included a summary of a study conducted on Audeo YES, an article on non-linear frequency compression, an article on the non-linear frequency compression algorithm, a study conducted on hearing aids from the Naida range, which included Sound Recover technology, and a summary of that study. Invisible Hearing said the Audeo YES restored high frequencies so the full spectrum of sounds was audible; it worked by compressing and shifting high frequencies into an audible area of hearing.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted Invisible Hearing sent the summary of a study conducted on Audeo YES but that the other study was conducted on a different hearing aid model. We also noted the article on the non-linear frequency compression algorithm stated "study results have shown no difference in vowel recognition with frequency compression ... ". We were concerned that the Audeo YES study involved only 12 participants, who had mild to moderate hearing loss, rather than loss across the full range of hearing, and that only speech intelligibility in quiet and noisy scenarios was tested. We noted the study said that some participants results did not show any benefit from using Sound Recover and an acclimatisation period of at least four weeks was recommended. We noted the ad claimed that the hearing aid could " ... fully restore your complete range of hearing!" and included the examples of " ... the telephone, door bell, alarm clock, birds singing, leaves rustling, rain falling, water running, bacon or sausages sizzling in the pan ... " whereas the summary of the study related only to speech. We considered the evidence was not sufficiently robust to support the claim " ... can fully restore your complete range of hearing!". We noted the small print "Certain hearing aids may not help all types of hearing loss ... " but considered that contradicted rather than clarified the claim. We concluded that the ad was misleading.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation) and 7.1 (Truthfulness).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Invisible Hearing not to make claims in future that they could not substantiate.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)