ASA Adjudication on Digital Hearing Aid Information Service Ltd

Ad

A national press ad for the 'Centra' hearing aid was headlined "The revolutionary Centra. Now you really will hear better than ever before." Text in the body copy stated "Finally. The breakthrough you have been waiting for. A hearing aid so technologically advanced ... The new, revolutionary Centra ...".

Issue

Crystal Hearing challenged whether the claim "The new, revolutionary Centra ..." was misleading and could be substantiated.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Digital Hearing Aid Information Service (DHAIS) said, unlike many other hearing aids, the Centra was water resistant and rechargeable, automatically softened wind noise and adapted to the wearer's volume preferences in different environments. They added that the Centra was completely automatic.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA understood that the technology referred to in the ad was three years old and that the Centra had since been replaced by newer models. We therefore considered that it was misleading to describe as "new" and "revolutionary" a product which had since been superceded by other models. We noted we had seen no evidence to substantiate that the Centra was new or revolutionary and therefore concluded that the claim 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 DHAIS not to describe the Siemens Centra hearing aid as "new" or "revolutionary" in future ads.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)