ASA Adjudication on Joanne Buckley

Ad

A magazine ad, for a spiritual advisor named Joanne Buckley, stated "GET READY TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE FOR THE BETTER Is your heart broken? Have you lost a love to another? Do you love someone from afar? Are you in turmoil? Are you at a X roads and unsure which direction to take? ARE YOU TIRED OF ALWAYS BEING THE LOSER IN LIFE? I can help you! I guarantee that you will be thrilled and amazed with the results or I will return your payment." Contact details were given at the foot of the ad.

Issue

Two complainants, both of whom had commissioned Joanne Buckley to perform spiritual work, challenged whether:

1. the ad misleadingly implied that her services were certain to work; and

2. the claim "I guarantee that you will be thrilled and amazed with the results or I will return your payment" was misleading and could be substantiated, because she failed to refund the money they had paid her when her work proved unsuccessful.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Joanne Buckley did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.

Assessment

1. & 2. Upheld

The ASA was concerned by Joanne Buckley's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code clause 2.6 (Non-response).  We reminded her of her obligations under the Code and told her to respond promptly in future.

We considered that readers of the ad were likely to infer from the claim "I guarantee that you will be thrilled and amazed with the results ..." that Joanne Buckley was confident that her services would produce positive results for her customers.  We noted the CAP Help Note on the Marketing of Spiritual and Psychic Services, Astrologers and Lucky Charms stated that "Claims that marketers will successfully solve all problems, break curses, banish evil spirits, improve the health, wealth love life, happiness or other circumstances of readers should be avoided because they are likely to be impossible to prove."  We were concerned that, despite the promise of a refund if they were not satisfied with her work, neither complainant had been able to obtain one.  Because we considered that the ad misleadingly implied that Joanne Buckley's service was certain to work and because we had not seen evidence to show that she refunded dissatisfied clients, we concluded that the ad was misleading.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 2.6 (Non-response), 3.1 (Substantiation), 6.1 (Honesty), 7.1 (Truthfulness), 17.1 and 17.3 (Guarantees).

Action

We told Joanne Buckley to withdraw the ad and asked CAP to inform its media members of the problem with Joanne Buckley.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)