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On 29 April, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a ruling on a misleading claim against a skin serum which claimed it was clinically proven to make the user ‘look up to five years younger’.
The CAP code states that before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers would likely regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. Objective claims must be substantiated by evidence, if relevant consisting of trials conducted on people.
From the substantiation provided, ASA noted numerous limitations with the studies, including the absence of control groups; the absence of information on participant recruitment; as well as a detailed protocol on standardisation application or inclusion/exclusion criteria. Moreover, the participants of some of the studies were not blinded to the treatment.
For several of the studies, whilst the ASA acknowledged the high level of agreement to the questions related to the claim in question, ASA considered the results as subjective and self-reported, which were not adequate to substantiate the clinically proven claim to look up to five years younger.
There was also questioning of the relevance of the trial conditions to typical UK use, due to the trial being conducted in a country with a hotter, sunnier climate than the UK and different participant characteristics in terms of skin type. They considered that differences could arise from climate and participant characteristics could reduce the extent the results could be taken as directly representative of typical use by the UK consumer.
Therefore, ASA concluded that the evidence was not adequate to substantiate the claim in question and thus breached the CAP code. The ad must not appear again in this current form, and the brand must not state or imply the above claim unless there is robust evidence in place to substantiate the claim.
Companies can access public resources on cosmetic claims, including the CTPA Guide to Advertising Claims for more information on Claim substantiation and Study Design.
