Three organisations have been found by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) to have broken advertising rules by advertising the prescription-only medicine Saxenda to the general public. In the UK it is illegal to advertise prescription-only medicines to the general public.
The breaches included the following:
- Four Instagram posts by Skinny Revolution Ltd, a weight loss injection provider.
- Two Instagram posts and a website for SkinnyJab Ltd, a weight loss injection provider.
- Three Instagram posts and a website for Skinny Clinic, a weight loss injection provider.
There were quite a number of issues raised by the ASA including the irresponsible promotion of the weight loss product Saxenda. All of the issues raised were upheld by the ASA and all three companies were found to have used Instagram to advertise the prescription-only medicine Saxenda.
The ASA told Skinny Revolution that the ads must not appear again in their current form. They told Skinny Revolution Ltd not to make claims that people could lose a precise amount of weight within a stated period and to ensure that claims that an individual had lost an exact amount of weight were compatible with good medical and nutritional practice. They also asked them to ensure they did not promote prescription-only medicines to the general public. They further told Skinny Revolution Ltd to ensure the presentation of their ads did not irresponsibly exploit people’s insecurities around body image.
The ASA told SkinnyJab Ltd that the ads must not appear again in their current form. They told SkinnyJab Ltd to ensure they did not promote prescription-only medicines to the general public. The ASA told SkinnyJab Ltd and Gemma Collins to ensure that their ads were obviously identifiable as marketing communications for example, by including a clear and prominent identifier such as #ad. The ASA further told SkinnyJab to ensure their ads did not irresponsibly imply that it could be used by people who were not overweight and suggest uses outside the summary of product characteristics for a licenced medicine. They also told them not to make claims that people could lose a precise amount of weight within a stated period.
The ASA told Skinny Clinic that the ads must not appear again in their current form. They told Skinny Clinic not to make claims that people could lose a precise amount of weight within a stated period. The ASA also told Skinny Clinic to ensure their ads did not irresponsibly imply that their products could be used by people who were not overweight and suggest uses outside the summary of product characteristics for a licenced medicine. We further told them not to promote prescription-only medicines to the general public in future.
You can read about the cases in more detail here.