Ad description
A website, www.riotanningtablets.co.uk, for tanning pills seen on 18 May 2016, stated "... WHAT ARE THE INGREDIENTS IN RIO TANNING PILLS? ... Silica ... it helps to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's ...". Further text about the product stated "... protect against Alzheimer's ..." and "... They can also help prevent [sic] against certain diseases like Alzheimer's ...".
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the claims "reduce the risk of Alzheimer's", "protect against Alzheimer's" and "prevent against ... Alzheimer's" breached the Code, because they were disease prevention claims for a food supplement.
Response
riotanningtablets.co.uk did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by riotanningtablets.co.uk's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of the CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 1.7 Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code. (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
Claims which stated or implied that foods (including food supplements) could prevent, treat or cure human disease were not permitted under the CAP Code. We considered that consumers would understand from the ad, and in particular the reference to silica (one of the product's ingredients) helping to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's, and the claims "protect against Alzheimer's" and "... help prevent against certain diseases like Alzheimer's", that taking the product could prevent the development of Alzheimer's disease. We therefore considered the ad made disease prevention claims for a food supplement and concluded it breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 15.6.2 15.6.2 Claims that state or imply a food prevents, treats or cures human disease. Reduction-of disease-risk claims are acceptable if authorised by the European Commission (Food, food supplements and associated health and nutrition claims).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told riotanningtablets.co.uk not to state or imply that their products could prevent disease. We referred the matter to the CAP Compliance team.
