Ad description
An Instagram post by beautician salon Queen of Aesthetics, seen on December 7 2018. The post featured a picture of Kylie Jenner with text that stated “Kylie Jenner Package. 1ml lips 1ml cheeks 1ml jawline".Issue
The ASA challenged whether the ad misleadingly suggested the package would give customers lips, cheeks and jawline that closely resembled those of Kylie Jenner.Response
Queen of Aesthetics said they had not posted any ad that told their customers they could make them resemble Kylie Jenner. They said the package was popular because Kylie Jenner and other members of her family had lip enhancements, cheek enhancements and jawline enhancements in the liquid volumes stated in the ad. Queen of Aesthetics said it would be almost impossible for a customer to look like anyone other than themselves after a non-surgical cosmetic procedure. They said the idea that a customer would look like Kylie Jenner after one of their procedures was akin to, for example, expecting a shampoo used in a TV ad to provide the hair type and style of that ad’s model.Assessment
Upheld
We noted that the ad included a photo of Kylie Jenner with the text “Kylie jenner Package” written around it. Beneath that was a list of the cosmetic procedures and text next to the photo that stated “My most popular package #kyliepackage”. We considered that consumers would therefore understand from the ad that they could achieve similar results to those of Kylie Jenner and that the photos accurately represented what could generally be achieved through use of the advertised cosmetic procedures.
We understood that Queen of Aesthetics wanted to present their products in the best light and use imagery that might represent what their products could achieve. However, we considered the ad should not misleadingly exaggerate the effect those products could achieve. Therefore we expected to see that the person in the ad, Kylie Jenner, had used those products and the ad was a realistic depiction of what the products could achieve. We had not seen evidence that the products’ effects on Kylie Jenner, as featured in the ad, could be achieved through use of the product only. Because Queen of Aesthetics had not provided sufficient evidence that substantiated the ad’s claims we therefore concluded that the ad was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition) 12 rules 3.1 and 3.3 (Misleading advertising) and 3.7 (Substantiation).Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Queen of Aesthetics not to suggest celebrities had used their products if they hadn’t.
