Ad description
Claims on www.acuweb.org.uk "Benefits" page, seen on 30 July, stated "Benefits of Acupuncture ... The British Acupuncture Council has published compendiums of Acupuncture research (see Literature & Links page) covering the following 41 conditions: ...". The 41 medical conditions were listed below the claim.
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the claim "The British Acupuncture Council has published compendiums of Acupuncture research ... covering the following 41 conditions" and the list of medical conditions misleadingly implied acupuncture was effective in treating those conditions.
Response
Mark Ackland said the page referred consumers to the British Acupuncture Council (BAcC) website, the publishers of Research Fact Sheets on the 41 conditions listed, with the intention of making available a resource that would enable consumers to look up their own condition and judge the evidence for themselves. He believed that, by listing the specific conditions, consumers would be made aware that there was literature available on their particular condition and where to find it. Consumers could then make up their own minds whether or not acupuncture would help them.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA noted the advertiser's intention was to simply make consumers aware that research was available for them to consult and that the page did not explicitly state that acupuncture could treat the listed conditions. However, we noted the ad included, under the heading of "Benefits of Acupuncture", text that stated "Many people come to acupuncture for help with specific symptoms or to relieve specific pains like osteoarthritis of the knee, tension headaches, or nausea & vomiting during pregnancy. A substantial amount of research has now been conducted on the effectiveness of acupuncture covering many of the common issues that people have". Although a general claim stating that research existed and where to find it was unlikely to be problematic in its self, we considered that, in the context of a page titled "Benefits of Acupuncture" and claims about research into the efficacy of acupuncture, the list of specific conditions suggested more than just the availability of information and implied that acupuncture would be effective in treating those conditions.
Although the evidence that we had seen in the past demonstrated that in the short-term acupuncture could be effective in the temporary relief of pain associated with headaches, migraines and back pain, we had not been satisfied that acupuncture was beneficial for the other listed conditions.
We therefore concluded that, because the ad implied acupuncture was an effective treatment for those conditions, the advertising was likely to mislead.
The advertising breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Mark Ackland not to make claims that implied efficacy for the conditions listed.
