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 search ad for Phlo Clinic, seen on 2 December 2024, included text that stated, “Weight loss Injections”.
Issue
The ASA challenged whether the ad breached the Code because it promoted POMs to the public.
Response
Phlo Technologies Ltd t/a Phlo Clinic said their telehealth service included a consultation with qualified healthcare professionals, educational resources to empower patient decision-making and treatment options, including both only POM and non-POM items (which were available only when clinically appropriate and following consultation).
They believed the marketing of their service was compliant with the guidelines issued by the GPhC (General Pharmaceutical Council) and MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) and did not promote POMs to the public.
They acknowledged that the claim “Weight Loss Injection” could have been misinterpreted as promoting POMs. They said the ad had been dynamically generated and used Google Ads Dynamic Search Ad (DSA) to automatically generate the ad’s headline and description, based on the user’s search term. That had inadvertently resulted in the use of the claim 'Weight Loss Injections' appearing in the text.
They said the ad and all associated ads using the DSA format were removed from circulation in December 2024 prior to the start of the ASA’s investigation. They further said that they had implemented advertising changes and updated their advertising strategy, to include a tighter internal review process to ensure all materials aligned with both ASA and regulatory guidelines.
Google said DSAs were a type of ‘Google Ads’ campaign which used an advertiser’s website content to target their ads. They said that headlines and landing pages of DSAs were generated using content from the advertiser’s website, and advertisers chose whether or not to use DSAs. They further said that the ad did not comply with their policies, and that the ad had been removed after they were notified of the investigation.
Assessment
Upheld
The CAP Code stated that prescription-only medicines (POMs) or prescription-only medical treatments must not be advertised to the public.
The ASA understood that all injectable forms of weight-loss medication were POMs. We considered that consumers would have understood the reference to “weight loss injections” in the ad to be a reference to POMs.
We sought advice from the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). They expressed concern that as weight-loss injections were legally classified as POMs, the use of those terms was likely to lead to a consumer requesting a POM.
Therefore, we considered that the ad advertised POMs to the public and concluded that it breached the Code.
We welcomed Phlo’s comments that they had implemented advertising changes and tightened their internal review process.
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 Phlo Technologies Ltd t/a Phlo Clinic not to promote POMs to the public in future.
