Ad description
The website www.redwoodhealth.co.uk under the heading "Body Contouring Treatments" and "Non-Surgical Fat Reduction Procedures" listed the following: "Laser iLipo", "Laser iLipo Ultra", "Cryo-lipolysis", "Ultrasonic Cavitation", "Radio Frequency" and "Dermology and iLipo Ultra". Text further down stated "Body Contouring in Winchester, Southampton, Basingstoke" and "Please call us to book an appointment or to find out more. As well as the full range of weight loss therapies we also offer products to complement your treatments …".
Beneath this was a list of treatments which included Laser iLipo Fat Reduction, Cryo-lipolysis and Ultrasonic Cavitation.
Cavitation was also mentioned on www.redwoodhealth.co.uk/aesthetic_nonsurgical/index.html.
Issue
The Evolutions Clinic Ltd challenged whether the references to body contouring treatments such as ultrasound cavitation and cryolipolysis were misleading, because they did not believe Redwood Health Therapies offered those treatments.
Response
Redwood Health Therapies Ltd said the company had ceased trading and that the website was in the process of being closed down.
Assessment
Upheld
Redwood Health Therapies had supplied no evidence to show either that their company had ceased trading or that they provided the treatments Evolutions Clinic disputed that they provided. Because of that, we concluded that the references to Redwood Health Therapies offering those treatments were misleading and in breach of the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
3.1
3.1
Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
and
3.3
3.3
Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.
Material information is information that the consumer needs to make informed decisions in relation to a product. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead the consumer depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the marketing communication is constrained by time or space, the measures that the marketer takes to make that information available to the consumer by other means.
(Misleading advertising) and
3.7
3.7
Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation.
(Substantiation).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Redwood Health Therapies Ltd to ensure their ads did not suggest that they provided specific treatments unless they could demonstrate that was the case.
