Ad description
A poster, press ad and the website for the Anthony Nolan Trust:
a. The press ad stated “WE’VE FOUND A CURE FOR BLOOD CANCER. PLEASED TO MEET YOU. At Anthony Nolan, we work tirelessly to cure blood cancer every day. But for each person we’re able to help, there’s always one we can’t. And that’s where you come in. With you on board, we can cure blood cancer more often”.
b. The poster stated “WE’VE FOUND A CURE FOR BLOOD CANCER. PLEASED TO MEET YOU. Blood cancer. Be the cure”.
c. The website, www.anthonynolan.org, stated “WE’VE FOUND A CURE FOR BLOOD CANCER - #BETHECURE … We are Anthony Nolan and we cure blood cancer. We’re happy you’re here”.
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the claim “We’ve found a cure for blood cancer” was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
Anthony Nolan said that bone marrow transplantation or haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), performed for people with blood and bone marrow diseases and also certain types of cancer, was a risky procedure and without it most eligible patients would die. They said, the phrase "found a cure" was used because by providing HSCT, it could introduce a new, healthy immune system that had the potential to successfully fight off the cancer or disorder, and essentially, that provided a cure. They said that they understood the efficacy and success rate of HSCT constantly needed to be improved and the treatment was seen as a curative therapy. They explained that in the UK it was estimated that the non-relapse mortality (NRM) rate for HSCT at five years post treatment was 31% for allogeneic transplants and 13% for autologous transplants.
Anthony Nolan provided various documents that included several from charitable and medical organisations, which they said highlighted the curative potential of HSCT. Those extracts included phrases such as "… the only proven curative treatment for children …", "… often the only curative treatment available" and "Despite the curative potential of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation …". The documents also cited the limitations and risks of HSCT. They also said they had taken steps to ensure the straplines were likely to be acceptable under the CAP Code and stated that they had obtained Copy Advice from CAP which advised that they were likely to be acceptable under the Code.
Assessment
Not upheld
The ASA noted the advertiser's assertion that 'cure' was interchangeable with 'treatment'. We disagreed because we considered that the words were likely to have significantly different meanings, that is, cure implied complete alleviation of a condition or disease. Although the evidence presented by Anthony Nolan had indicated that in some instances, HSCT was a viable option for some people and some types of blood cancer, that evidence also highlighted the risks associated with the procedure, that it was not suitable for all patients and that there was a chance of recurrence.
However, we considered consumers would understand that cancer treatment was not without risks and would not always result in complete remission. We also considered that the ads made a broad statement related to blood cancer in general and although the prominent headline stated "We've found a cure …" we considered that the statements that followed, for example, "Pleased to meet you", "… that's where you come in", "With you on board, we can cure blood cancer more often" and "… because this is where you start to save lives, just by being you" made it clear that a 'cure' was dependent on a successful bone marrow match, not that a definitive cure had been found. We considered that was further reinforced by text in ad (a) that said "... for each person we're able to help, there's always one we can't".
Because the ads contained qualifying statements, which indicated that the 'cure' related to the potential success of a bone marrow match, we concluded the ads were not misleading.
We investigated the ads under CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (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) but did not find them in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
