ASA Adjudication on Ideal Shopping Direct plc

Ad

A teleshopping ad for the 'Dermawand', a hand-held portable high frequency device, claimed "You use it as a skin preparation tool and you use it as a skin exerciser ... it's temporary results that you can have every single day morning noon and night if you want them. It's all about results. Results that work." The presenter said "Use your Dermawand every day" and showed various before and after shots of models who had been treated with the Dermawand. In the after shots the models appeared to have more raised and toned eyebrows. A beautician said "The other thing the Dermawand is doing for you is exercising your face". The ad showed a series of before and after live demonstrations. The presenter said "Now obviously everybody's different, Julie gets an absolutely sensational result, but you can see the results are incredible". Superimposed text stated "Individual results may vary". The beautician said "If you look at the before, you see there the slight hoodedness over her eye, the position of her eyebrow, if you look at the wrinkles around the side of the eye, and underneath the eye as well, just concentrate on that area and when we go to the after (the ad showed the after image) the hoodedness is gone, the wrinkles have diminished, the wrinkles underneath the eye as well as at the side of the eye, the eye appears more open, the eyebrows lifted, there's not so much sagginess or bagginess". The presenter said "Its a temporary fix, it's like your teeth, your teeth are going to get dirty again if you don't clean them". The ad featured various customer testimonials both on video and through phone messages. The ad cut to a previously recorded Dermawand ad and showed a live demonstration of the Dermawand being used on the chin and jaw line. The presenter said "(a) it works and (b) you get results and it's results that are tangible, results you can achieve".

Issue

One viewer challenged whether the efficacy of the Dermawand could be substantiated.

BCAP TV Code

Response

Ideal Shopping Direct (Ideal World) said they had simply demonstrated live in the ad the exercising effects of using Dermawand on the face, and the resultant effects were obvious to viewers. They said the demonstrations carried out on the three individuals were all shown live and were entirely genuine. Ideal World said they repeatedly stated the temporary nature of the results, and that individual results varied, in order that viewers were not misled about the suitability of the product for their needs. They believed the ad conformed entirely with the CAP Help Note on Beauty Treatment Devices Using Electrical Currents, nevertheless, they offered their assurance that the ad would not be shown again until adequate scientific testing had been carried out.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA welcomed the assurance from Ideal World that the ad would no longer appear in its current form. We understood that the Dermawand was not sold by any UK body other than Ideal World and acknowledged their assurance that properly constituted independent trials would be carried out to provide evidence of Dermawand's efficacy. However, we were concerned that Ideal World had not acted upon the recommendation of an earlier ASA Monitoring Investigation that had found no evidence supporting the efficacy of the Dermawand, and that they had continued to advertise the product without holding the necessary supporting evidence of the efficacy of the high frequency treatment. We were concerned that the effectiveness of the product, as shown during the live before and after demonstrations, was not supported by evidence. We concluded that, because Ideal World had not provided evidence that showed the product had any effect on skin, the ad was misleading.

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1 (Misleading), 5.2.1 (Evidence to support claims), and 5.4.4 (Testimonials).

Action

The ad must not be shown again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)