ASA Adjudication on Khytan Trading

Ad

A door-drop circular, The North London Phone Box, described as "your essential guide to local business and services" featured small ads from a number of companies offering local services. An ad on the back page of the circular stated "Who Else Wants To Discover A Rebel Psychiatrist's Amazing Secret That Lets You Put People Under Your Control Quickly & Easily … And Get Them To Do Anything You Want?" "Anything You Want" was underlined. The text continued "Now you can unleash your natural ability to "Influence anyone to follow your lead", "Get clients & customers to buy from you", "Command new respect with everyone", "Negotiate with stellar success", "Compel colleagues to do what you suggest", "Get just about anyone to say "Yes"", "Have children and teens obey your commands", "Keep your lover(s) eternally loyal". The text finished "And best of all, they will thank you for the opportunity to do as you say." A website address was given: www.mindcontrol.khytan.co.uk. Small print stated: "DISCLAIMER Customers using advertisers services are advised that whilst reasonable efforts have been made to only secure advertisers offering high standards of service, Khytan Trading is not responsible for the delivery/quality of services provided by the advertiser. We would welcome any feedback you have both positive and negative so that we may continue to include only the most reputable businesses in future issues."

Issue

The complainant challenged whether:

1. the claims in the ad for the hypnotherapy service were irresponsible, and

2. the claims in the ad for the hypnotherapy service could be substantiated.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Khytan Trading (Khytan) said the ad was for a hypnotherapy service and concerned an audio training course "Conversational Hypnosis" which could be downloaded. They explained they were paid commission on sales of the course originating from a Khytan weblink and the product was sold on an online marketplace based in the USA, but accessible worldwide. They said they used marketing copy provided by the hypnotherapy service and stated the online marketplace operated a vetting policy for all advertised products, which they had assumed was sufficient. They said they were therefore not in a position to substantiate the claims used in the copy provided by Conversational Hypnosis or determine whether the claims were irresponsible. Khytan said Conversational Hypnosis' website provided testimonials and the credentials of the hypnotherapists who produced the course. They said they had seen positive comments on internet forums and felt that continual advertising and sales indicated results that showed the claims were merited. They said the ad was for a personal development product and did not feel it was irresponsible.

Assessment

1. Upheld

The ASA noted that the ad used phrases such as "Amazing Secret That Lets You Put People Under Your Control Quickly & Easily", "Get Them To Do Anything You Want" and "Have children and teens obey your commands", which implied that people could learn to control others for their own purposes.

Because the ad implied that people, and children in particular, could be indiscriminately controlled or influenced without their knowledge or consent, we concluded the ad was irresponsible.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clauses 2.2 (Principles), 6.1 (Honesty) and 7.1 (Truthfulness).

2. Upheld

The ASA noted that Khytan used marketing copy provided by the hypnotherapy service and that they believed the online marketplace operated an ad vetting policy. However, we noted that they said they were unable to substantiate the claims in the ad.

Because they were unable to provide substantiation supporting the claims made in the ad, we concluded the claims were misleading.

On this point the ad breached CAP Code clauses 2.2 (Principles), 3.1 (Substantiation), 6.1 (Honesty) and 7.1 (Truthfulness).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)