Revised Help Note on the Marketing of Publications - coming soon to a CAP website near you!

26 October 2004

Ads for non-fiction books (especially those that refer to medical conditions) regularly fall foul of the CAP Code and tend to generate large numbers of complaints to the ASA. Complaints usually involve whether the ads could encourage self-diagnosis or self-treatment for serious medical conditions, whether the claims are capable of being substantiated and whether they could potentially exploit vulnerable people. In light of recent ASA adjudications (click here to read them), CAP will shortly issue an updated version of the Help Note on the Marketing of Publications.

The revised Help Note will extend the existing one and offer lots of useful examples of claims that are likely to be acceptable and claims that are likely to fall foul of the Code. Also, it will contain a handy list of terms that are likely to be acceptable when referring to claims that are based on the opinions of the author (such as "The author believes, argues, debates, postulates..."). Marketers should remember, however, that claims that are capable of objective substantiation and are likely to affect the reader's behaviour should not be featured in marketing communications for publications even when expressed as an opinion. It is acceptable for ads to describe a publication's content in discursive terms but marketers should not simply preface an unproven claim with "we believe" or similar.

For example:

"The author shares the secrets of healing with herbs that he believes can be used to drive illness away and keep it away" - likely to be unacceptable

"In his book, the author reveals little-known secrets about herbs and invites you to decide for yourself whether they could be useful in treating illness and maintaining good health" - likely to be acceptable.

The revised Help Note will also include examples of claims that are likely to be either acceptable or unacceptable when referring to serious medical conditions, using anecdotes and testimonials, using claims-in-names, using claims that are likely to exploit or frighten vulnerable people and using 'guarantee' claims.

Watch this space!