ASA Adjudication on Vitabiotics Ltd

Ad

Two posters for vitamin supplements:

a. The first ad was headlined "ADVANCED NUTRIENTS FOR THE BRAIN" and featured a picture of a box of supplements. Text on the box stated "Vitabiotics neurozan plus To help maintain Brain Function & Performance NUTRIENTS FOR THE BRAIN". Text in a circle on the right of the box stated “UK’s NO1 MICRO-NUTRIENTS FOR SPECIFIC LIFE STAGES”. Below the product shot, text in a blue box stated "Includes B VITAMINS & VIT D3 AS SHOWN IN NEW RESEARCH". Large text beneath stated "neurozan CAPSULES." Text at the bottom of the ad stated “VITABIOTICS WHERE NATURE MEETS SCIENCE”.

b. The second ad had the headline "ADVANCED MICRONUTRIENTS FOR THE BRAIN" next to a picture of two boxes of supplements. Text on the first box stated "neurozan plus To help maintain Brain Function & Performance NUTRIENTS FOR THE BRAIN". Text on the second box stated "neurozan feed your mind Bio-active nutrients to help maintain Brain Performance & Memory NUTRIENTS FOR THE BRAIN". Text below the boxes stated "B-VITAMINS & THE BRAIN Also includes the specific B vitamins reported in ground-breaking research". Text below the headline stated "Designed to help keep you at your razor sharp best, Neurozan Plus contains NEURO-SPECIFIC MICRO-NUTRIENTS including phosphatidylserine, 5 HTP, Co-Q10, vit D3, B complex and zinc to help maintain cognitive function and mental performance." Text at the bottom of the ad stated “VITABIOTICS WHERE NATURE MEETS SCIENCE”.

Issue

The complainant challenged whether the claims in ads (a) and (b), that recent research had shown that B vitamins could help maintain brain function and mental performance was misleading, because they understood that the research referred to did not support that conclusion.

CAP Code (Edition 12)

Response

Vitabiotics Ltd (Vitabiotics) said, as one of the countrys largest and most respected vitamin supplement companies, they strived to ensure all of their marketing communications were accurate and fully compliant with the CAP Code. They said they took seriously any complaints that were drawn to their attention, and said that such third party complaints remained infrequent given that that they were one of the largest press advertisers in the sector.

Vitabiotics provided a copy of the research referred to in the ad, but said they did not make the claim in either ad that recent research had shown that B vitamins could help maintain brain function and mental performance. They said the statement on the pack "to help maintain brain function and performance" referred to the Neurozan Plus product as a whole, and not the mention of the research news. They argued that no conclusion or claim at all was made in relation to the research news and said the claim "Also includes the specific B vitamins reported in ground-breaking research" referred to the fact that the nutrients found in Neurozan had been positively featured in recent research.

Vitabiotics said, regardless of the arguments they had put forward, no further ads would feature the claims unless they were deemed acceptable by the ASA.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted that Vitabiotics did not believe the ads made any claims about the effect of B vitamins on brain function and mental performance. However, we considered that the claims "To help maintain Brain Function & Performance NUTRIENTS FOR THE BRAIN" and "ADVANCED NUTRIENTS FOR THE BRAIN ... Includes B VITAMINS & VIT D3 AS SHOWN IN NEW RESEARCH" in ad (a) and the claims "neurozan plus To help maintain Brain Function & Performance NUTRIENTS FOR THE BRAIN", "neurozan feed your mind Bio-active nutrients to help maintain Brain Performance & Memory NUTRIENTS FOR THE BRAIN", "Designed to help keep you at your razor sharp best, Neurozan Plus contains ... B complex ... to help maintain cognitive function and mental performance" and "B-VITAMINS & THE BRAIN Also includes the specific B vitamins reported in ground-breaking research" in ad (b) would be interpreted by readers to mean that B vitamins could help maintain brain function, performance and memory, and that that was supported by recent, pioneering research.

We noted that the study provided by Vitabiotics was a randomised, double-blinded, controlled trial which assessed whether supplementation with high doses of folic acid (vitamin B9) and vitamins B6 and B12 could slow the accelerated rate of brain atrophy in those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We noted the 168 study participants were all aged over 70 and had a diagnosis of MCI, and that some participants had other health concerns such as diabetes and history of strokes, and we therefore considered that the study was unsuitable to support claims likely to be understood as referring to the normal, healthy adult population.

Notwithstanding that, while we noted the study concluded that supplementation with those B vitamins over the course of two years could slow the rate of brain atrophy in elderly subjects with MCI, we also noted that the study was not powered to assess the effect of the treatment on cognition or cognitive decline. We therefore also considered that the study was not suitable to support claims relating to brain function or mental performance. We therefore concluded that the implied claims that recent research had shown that B vitamins could help maintain brain function and performance had not been substantiated and were misleading.

Ads (a) and (b) breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 3.7 (Substantiation), 15.1 and 15.1.1 (Food, food supplements and associated health and nutrition claims) and 15.7 (Food Supplements and other Vitamins and Minerals).

Action

Ad (a) must not appear again in its current form.

Ad (b) must not appear again in its current form.

We told Vitabiotics not to repeat the implied claims about B-vitamins and recent research.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)