ASA Adjudication on Life Healthcare
Life Healthcare t/a
Regal Health
Unit 1689
24B Moorefield Road
Johnsonville
Wellington 6037
New Zealand
Date:
5 September 2012
Media:
Direct mail
Sector:
Health and beauty
Number of complaints:
1
Complaint Ref:
A12-199595
Ad
A direct mailing, for a sexual enhancement spray, was headed "At last, an effective solution to erection problems! Get an immediate, hard erection - guaranteed! Below was an image of a naked woman, lying on her front and looking up at the camera. The leaflet contained various similar claims about increased sexual performance and testimonials detailing the effect the product had had on a number of men's sex lives, along with a further image of the woman, lying on her front, with her nipple exposed.
Issue
The complainant objected that the unsolicited ad was offensive, because of the sexual content.
CAP Code (Edition 12)
Response
Regal Health did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by Regal Health's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
We noted the mailing contained overtly sexual content and we therefore considered that it required very careful targeting to avoid causing offence to unsuspecting recipients. However, we understood from the complainant that the mailing was unsolicited. Since the ad was likely to cause serious and widespread offence and had not been adequately targeted, we concluded that the ad breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.3 (Social responsibility) and 4.1 (Harm and offence).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Regal Health to ensure similar marketing communications were carefully targeted in future to avoid causing offence. We asked CAP to inform its members of the problem with Regal Health.
