Background
This Ruling forms part of a wider piece of work on prescription-only medicines (POMs) used for weight loss. The ads were identified for investigation following intelligence gathering by our Active Ad Monitoring system, which uses AI to proactively search for online ads that might break the rules.
Ad description
A paid-for Google ad for Voy, seen on 3 October 2024, stated “Lose Weight With Medication […] Science-Backed Treatments That Are Significantly More Effective Than Diet & Exercise Alone. Medical Treatments and […] Limited Time Discount […] Get access to the Voy programme at a discounted price. Limited time […] Leading medical and prescribing practice”.
Issue
The ASA challenged whether the ad breached the Code because it promoted prescription-only medicines (POMs) to the public.
Response
Menwell Ltd t/a Voy said they provided a weight-loss service which included prescription-only medication, pharmacy-only medicine, non-prescription medicines, nutritional support, behavioural change coaching, and clinical support. They understood that MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) guidance allowed them to provide non-promotional, factual information about POMs. They believed that the ad made clear that the limited time discount applied to the Voy programme, rather than a specific POM. While they did not believe that the ad promoted POMs, they said they would be careful with the future wording of their ads, to ensure they made clear when a discount applied exclusively to their service or programme and/or non-POM medicines and supplements. Voy said they removed the paid-for ad and the landing page after receiving notification of the complaint.
Assessment
Upheld
The CAP Code stated that prescription-only medicines (POMs) or prescription-only medical treatments must not be advertised to the public.
The ad stated “Lose Weight With Medication” and included the claims “Get access to the Voy programme at a discounted price. Limited time” and “Leading medical and prescribing practice”, but did not mention specific products. The ad linked to a landing page on Voy’s website which featured headline text that stated “UK’s No.1 Provider for Weight Loss Prescriptions”, under which smaller text stated “Click the link below to claim your discount and find out which medication is right for you”. Below that, two boxes with hyperlinks included text that stated “Claim 40% off today” and “See treatments”. Further down the page, under the subheading “How to get started”, text stated “Our experts will recommend the right weight loss injection plan for you”. The ASA considered that consumers would have understood the section titled “How to get started” to provide details on how they could “Lose Weight With Medication”, as referenced in the ad. We also understood that all injectable forms of weight-loss medication were POMs.
We acknowledged Voy’s comments that their programme included the use of pharmacy-only medicines, non-prescription medicines, nutritional support, behavioural change coaching, and clinical support, as well as POMs. However, the landing page made only brief mention of Voy’s behavioural change programme and provision of dedicated health coaches. Information regarding those aspects of the programme was limited to a chart comparing Voy’s programme to high street pharmacies, located near the bottom of the page. Prominent text at the top of the page, however, referred to “Weight Loss Prescriptions”, and was accompanied by further text which encouraged consumers to find out which medication was right for them. The section “How to get started” also explicitly referred to weight-loss injection plans, and the first line of the comparison chart stated “Clinically proven weight loss medication”. We therefore considered that the prominent information seen on the landing page had a clear implication that weight-loss injectable POMs would be provided as part of the Voy programme. Because of that, we considered the ad, and its reference to losing weight with medication, and Voy being a medical and prescribing practice – reinforced by the landing page’s text – had the effect of promoting POMs to the public.
We sought advice from the MHRA. They expressed concern that consumers could arrive at the landing page, and its claim that “experts will recommend the right weight loss injection plan for you”, from a proactively issued promotional sponsored advertisement. They were therefore concerned that as weight-loss injections (“weight loss injection plan”) were legally classified as POMs, the use of that term was likely to lead to a consumer requesting a POM.
We also considered Chapter seven of the MHRA’s Blue Guide, which stated that information provided about POMs had to be factual, and non-promotional. The ad stated “Limited Time Discount” and “Get access to the Voy programme at a discounted price. Limited time”. The landing page of the website also stated “Limited offer 40% discount” and “Claim 40% off today”. Again, while we acknowledged Voy’s comments that POMs were part of an overall programme which included non-medical services, we considered that the main information seen on the landing page would likely be understood by consumers to refer to a POM-based service, which they could purchase at a discounted rate for a limited time. We therefore considered that, due to the context of the landing page, consumers would have understood the “Limited Time Discount” and “discounted price. Limited time” claims seen in the Google ad to refer to a promotional price for a POM. Because of that, we concluded that aspect of the ad also promoted POMs to the public.
While we welcomed Voy’s removal of the ad and landing page, for those reasons we considered that the ad advertised POMs to the public and concluded that it breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 12.12 (Medicines, medical devices, health-related products and beauty products).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Menwell Ltd t/a Voy not to promote POMs to the public in future.
