In popular culture, hangover cures can feel like a mixture of folk remedies, conventional wisdom and urban myths. While suggesting a fry up to a friend after a night out is one thing, publicly advertising a product to specifically address the symptoms is another.
What is a hangover?
Advice from the Medicines and Healthcare products Agency (MHRA) suggests that hangovers and their symptoms are considered adverse medical conditions. The term “hangover” is associated with symptoms such as nausea, dehydration, headache, vomiting and stomach upset.
Food, drinks and supplements vs. medicine
Unless your product is a licensed medicine, you cannot make any medicinal claims (whether direct or implied). You are making a medicinal claim if you are saying that your product can help diagnose, treat, or prevent any kind of disease, injury, or adverse condition, whether it's physical or mental, in people and/or animals.
Food, drinks and supplements which claim to treat hangovers are subject to Section 15 of the CAP Code (BCAP Section 13). Medicinal claims for foods are prohibited (though some ‘disease risk reduction claims’ are permitted if they are authorised).
Do not suggest you can treat a hangover
The ASA has ruled in relation to hangover cures that “stated or implied a food or drink could prevent, treat or cure human disease" (Hangcure Ltd, Whisp Drinks, Bounce Back Drinks), noting that a hangover and the symptoms associated with a hangover, such as nausea, dehydration, headache, vomiting and stomach upset, were adverse medical conditions.
Products should not be advertised as implying they can treat or alleviate the symptoms or after-effects of a hangover. This includes products pitched for consumption before, during or after alcohol consumption.
Indirect claims still count
It’s not just explicit efferences to “hangovers” and “hangover cures” which will be considered a breach. Indirect wording, branding and context will also always be taken into account.
For example, the ASA considered that an "After-Alcohol Revival Drink” which was advertised as “positively deal[ing] with the after-effects of alcohol” and “replenish[ing] the body” would be understood by consumers to mean that the product could help to prevent, treat or cure a hangover.
Similarly, the ASA found that claims including "NO NEED FOR CRAZY REMEDIES ANYMORE" and hashtags such as ”#hangcure #hangcurerebound #ultimatehangovercure #hangover #hangoverremedies" would be understood by consumers to mean that the product could help to prevent a hangover.
Advertisers should remember that indirect claims can carry just as much weight as a direct claim.
Be careful with your product name
Claims in a product or brand name are also likely to be problematic. The ASA previously ruled on the brand name “Hangcure” because they considered it would be understood by consumers to be a shorthand for “hangover cure" and therefore equated to a prohibited claim to prevent, treat or cure hangovers, which was prohibited by the Code.
Advertising ‘no hangover’ alcohol and social responsibility
Given the relation to alcohol, which is a sensitive product category with additional restrictions, hangover-related claims can also create social responsibility problems.
In a comparison with regular beer, the ASA ruling on Whisp Drinks considered the claim “Drink loads, and you will get drunk. The only difference – you’ll be hungover from a beer, but you won’t with…” encouraged drinking to excess, and that the claim as a whole presented this as a positive.
Ads should not lead people to adopt styles of drinking that are unwise or that they may be preferred because of its intoxicating effect. Suggesting an alcoholic drink will negate the usual after-effects of a heavy drinking session can not only breach the Code on health grounds, but also if it is seen to condone excessive consumption.
If you need any additional support on any non-broadcast ads, contact CAP’s Copy Advice team.
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