ASA Adjudication on BritChiro Clinics Ltd

Ad

A radio ad, for chiropractic clinics, stated "Do you suffer with arthritic pain? Does it hurt in your shoulder, elbow, wrist, knee or ankle? If so BritChiro could help. Multi-award winning chiropractors, we've achieved excellent results with people of all ages. Our highly professional doctors of chiropractic have years of experience and are committed to patients' health ...".

Issue

The Carlton Clinic challenged whether the claim "doctors of chiropractic" misleadingly implied that the practitioners held general medical qualifications.

BCAP Radio Code

Response

The Radio Advertising Clearance Centre (RACC) said, prior to broadcast, they had checked the qualifications of BritChiro Clinics (BritChiro) and found that they were professionally recognised qualifications. The RACC said, given the qualifications, they believed the term "professional doctors of chiropractic" was not misleading in context. They said they did not agree that listeners were likely to infer from the ad that Britchiros practitioners were medically qualified as well as chiropractic qualified.

Assessment

Not Upheld

The ASA noted the title Dr was not used in the ad as a practitioners title and considered that listeners were therefore likely to understand from the claim "doctors of chiropractic" that BritChiros practitioners practised chiropractic rather than medicine. While we considered that Doctor of Chiropractic would not be an adequate qualification in an ad referring to a practitioner as Dr, we considered that, used on its own as a description of a practitioners profession, it was unlikely to mislead listeners about the nature of practitioners qualifications or to be interpreted as a claim that they held general medical qualifications.

We investigated the ad under CAP (Broadcast) Radio Advertising Standards Code section 2 rule 3 (Misleadingness) but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)