Note: This advice is given by the CAP Executive about non-broadcast advertising. It does not constitute legal advice. It does not bind CAP, CAP advisory panels or the Advertising Standards Authority.
Some marketers have tried to circumvent the Code’s requirements by placing ads that go no further than availability-only but feature a product or company name that implies weight loss. Our position on claims-in-names is that, if an advertiser is not allowed to make a claim in its ad, it is not normally acceptable for the product’s name to imply that same claim. So, even if the ad contains no specific claims, if it believes readers are going to infer wrongly that the product can contribute to weight loss, the ASA or CAP will almost certainly ask the marketer either to change the name (if that product name is not registered) or, if the product name is a registered trademark, to include a prominent disclaimer that the product has not been shown to aid weight loss. Past examples include “Fat-magnet”, “Fat-Blocker”, “Fat Attack”, “Fat Trapper” and “Exercise in a Bottle” and “Metabaslim” (Tan Express (UK) Ltd, 4 December 2002).
In 2008, the ASA concluded that a product name, Fat Stripper, misleadingly implied the product worked for fat loss. The disclaimer was tiny and was likely to be overlooked by most readers. But the ASA concluded that, even if it been more prominent, the disclaimer would have contradicted the implied efficacy claim in the name. Because it was not a registered trademark, the ASA told the advertiser not to feature the product name in its marketing material again (LA Muscle Ltd, 27 February 2008).
Similarly in 2011, the ASA upheld complaints about an ad which featured three bottles, labeled “shape”, “tone” and “sculpt”, underneath an image of a slim woman. The product names were registered trademarks. Although the ad carried a disclaimer that the names of the products were not intended to imply efficacy, the ASA considered that the average consumer would infer from the whole ad that the products could shape, tone or sculpt the body, and that the disclaimer was not sufficiently prominent to counteract this impression (bio-synergy Ltd, 30 November 2011).
That advice is not limited to products for weight control. See ’Claims in product names’.
Last modified : 19 January 2012