These reports are case summaries of complaints which appeared to raise issues of substance in relation to the interpretation of the ITC Advertising Standards Code. Summary statistics of non-substantive complaints can be found in the full reports which are obtainable from the ITC.
Shop Smart
Complaint from: 1 viewer
Background
An advertisement for Velform Hair Grow, a hair care product designed to encourage hair growth, was shown on Shop Smart.
Issue
Last year the ITC upheld a complaint against a teleshopping channel for broadcasting an advertisement for Velform Hair Grow on the grounds that it was misleading (Advertising Complaints Report, Bulletin No 1, October 2002).
A viewer reported that a similar version of the advertisement was showing on Shop Smart.
Assessment
Although Shop Smart believed that its version complied with the ITC Advertising Code, the channel decided to remove the advertisement from its schedule as soon as the ITC referred it to its previous adjudication.
Shop Smart provided the ITC with the same clinical studies that had been given during the earlier investigation of the advertisement. These studies referred to a clinical trial involving only 17 volunteers and showed that the "treatment had an action on the improvement of the state and the appearance of hair for 76% of the panel". However, the advertisement had claimed "hundreds of people had found [Velform] 100% effective in treating hair loss".
Further claims in the commercial stated that it was "the only ecological product of its kind", that it was "all natural", that it would stop hair falling out after two months of regular use and that new hair would start growing by the third month, enabling people to "recover the full head of hair you thought you'd lost forever". As with the other advertisement, the Shop Smart version featured men and women with long, thick hair and the ITC considered that these images along with the audio claims gave a clear and overriding impression that the product would produce the same results as those illustrated for anybody who used it. It did not consider the evidence supplied by Shop Smart was adequate to support the claims made.
The ITC noted that Shop Smart had removed the advertisement from air but judged that it was misleading at the time of broadcast. It required that it should not be shown again in its current form.
Conclusion
Breach of ITC Code Rule 5.2.1.
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