Ad description
A paid-for Google ad for YourDailyPatch seen on 27 March 2025 with the heading “DietPatch™: Official Website”. Below that, text stated “Patch that Burns The Extra Fat - DietPatch™ [...] Clinically Approved. With DietPatch™ Start Getting Confident and Happy with Your Body Again […].”
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the efficacy claim that the product could burn fat and produce weight loss was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
Person(s) unknown t/a YourDailyPatch did not respond to the ASA enquiries.
Assessment
The ASA was concerned by Person(s) unknown t/a YourDailyPatch’s lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code as well as their failure to provide their full name and geographical business address, which were in breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.7 (Unreasonable delay) and 1.7.1 (Compliance). We reminded them of their responsibility to provide a response to our enquiries without delay and told them to do so in the future.
Upheld
The CAP Code stated that a weight reduction regime in which the intake of energy was lower than its output was the most common self-treatment for achieving weight reduction, and any claim made for the effectiveness or action of a weight reduction method or product must be backed, if applicable, by rigorous trials on people.
The ASA considered that the claims “DietPatchTM”, “Patch that Burns The Extra Fat”, “DietPatchTM […] Clinically Approved” and “With DietPatchTM Start Getting Confident and Happy with Your Body Again” would be understood by consumers to mean that wearing the patch would burn fat and result in weight loss, and that there was evidence from clinical trials to support that.
We had not seen any substantiation in support of the claims; neither clinical trials conducted on people, nor any explanation or evidence about the mechanism through which the active ingredients were transmitted across the skin, the physiological effect they had on the body, and how they burned fat and resulted in weight loss as claimed in the ad. In the absence of such evidence, we concluded that the claims that the product could burn fat resulting in weight loss had not been substantiated and were therefore misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 3.7 (Substantiation) and 13.1 (Weight control and slimming).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Person(s) unknown t/a YourDailyPatch to ensure their future advertising did not make unsubstantiated claims that their patch could assist with fat burning and weight loss. We referred the matter to CAP’s Compliance team.
