Ad description
A paid-for Facebook ad and a paid-for YouTube display ad for Hemios, a magnetic bracelet.
a. The Facebook ad, seen on 24 May 2026, featured an image of a bracelet and the text, “DAMN, THIS THING WORKS! Morning wood is back. Gained 15lbs of muscle. Energy lasts all day. Stubborn belly fat melted.”
b. The YouTube ad, seen on13 May 2026, featured an image of a bracelet and the text, “ROCK HARD MORNINGS IN 72 HOURS. Or get your money back.”, “BURNS OFF BEER BELLY”, “MELTS MAN BOOBS”, “REDUCES JOINT PAIN”, “BOOSTS DESIRE”.
Issue
Two complainants challenged whether the efficacy claims for the Hemios were misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
Hemios said the ads were old creatives made by freelance contractors that had remained live by mistake. Hemios said the contractors had not gone through an adequate internal review before publication. They accepted that they were responsible for advertising published on their behalf, including material created by third parties, and said their controls had not been strong enough on this occasion. They said the ads had been removed.
Hemios said the bracelet was a non-medical wellness accessory and that the messaging was intended to reflect possible uses of the product, including a secondary use as an intimate constriction ring. They provided a link to a “Transparency & Safety” page on their website, which explained how the bracelet could be worn and said that any temporary effect from intimate use would arise from physical constriction. Hemios referred to three published papers on vacuum-constriction devices.
Assessment
Upheld
The ads featured the claims “morning wood”, “ROCK HARD MORNINGS”, “BOOSTS DESIRE”, and “REDUCES JOINT PAIN”, alongside an image of the Hemios Hematite Bracelet. The ASA considered consumers would understand the claims to mean that the product could improve erectile performance, increase sexual desire and reduce joint pain. We considered those were health claims that needed to be supported by adequate evidence. The claims were presented as direct statements about the effects of the product, without qualification or any indication that those effects depended on a particular method of use.
Further, we considered that “Stubborn belly fat melted”, “BURNS OFF BEER BELLY”, and “MELTS MAN BOOBS” would be understood to mean that the product could bring about slimming effects, including reducing body fat from specific areas of the body. Those claims also required substantiation. We also considered the use of categorical wording such as “BURNS OFF” and “MELTS”, further reinforced the impression that use of the product itself would directly cause the stated reduction in body fat.
Hemios said that the messaging used in the ads was based on a secondary use of the product as an intimate constriction ring. We considered that the ads made no reference to the product being used in that way. Further, we did not consider that the secondary use explained the claims relating to energy, joint pain, or the claimed slimming effects. Consumers would therefore have no reason to understand the claimed effects as arising from the product being used as a constriction device, rather than from the bracelet shown and promoted in the ads.
We assessed the evidence provided. This included a transparency and safety page from Hemios’ website, and summaries of three articles which related to studies of vacuum-constriction devices. Hemios did not provide copies of the articles. However, we understood that they did not relate to the product sold and were not recent. The website material did not amount to substantiation for the claims in the ads.
Because we had not seen evidence that the Hemios bracelet could produce the claimed effects, we concluded that the claims had not been substantiated and were misleading.
The ads breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 3.7 (Substantiation), 12.1 (Medicines, medical devices, health-related products and beauty products), and 13.1 (Weight control and slimming).
Action
The ads must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Hemios not to make efficacy claims about their product, for example in relation to weight loss, or improving erectile performance, in the absence of adequate evidence.
