Ad description
A website for Hair Growth Centre, www.hairgrowthcentre.com, seen in November 2017, stated on their “About Us” page “Hair Growth Centre is a member of EHRS European Hair Research Society” and included the EHRS logo. .
Issue
EHRS and a member of the public, who understood that the Hair Growth Centre was not a member of the EHRS, challenged whether the ad was misleading.
Response
The Hair Growth Centre acknowledged the ASA’s correspondence but did not provide a full response to our enquiries.
Assessment
The ASA was concerned by Hair Growth Centre’s lack of substantive response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of 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 provide a substantive response to our enquiries and told them to do so in the future.
Upheld
The ASA considered that consumers would interpret the claim page “Hair Growth Centre is a member of EHRS European Hair Research Society” and the use of the EHRS logo to mean that Hair Growth Centre was a current member of the society. Because we understood from the EHRS that they were not, we therefore concluded that the ad was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) 3.50 3.50 Marketing communications must not display a trust mark, quality mark or equivalent without the necessary authorisation. Marketing communications must not claim that the marketer (or any other entity referred to), the marketing communication or the advertised product has been approved, endorsed or authorised by any public or other body if it has not or without complying with the terms of the approval, endorsement or authorisation. (Endorsements and testimonials).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Hair Growth Centre not to state, imply or use the logo of EHRS unless they were a member. We referred the matter to the CAP Compliance team.
