Aye Aye! It’s National Eye Health Week from 23-29 September – and to celebrate, we have a spectacle of three eye-related rulings for you to eyeball, consisting of promotional laser eye surgery, offensive references to blindness and colour changing eye drops. Ay ay ay! Do you think these eye puns will get old by the end of the article? Eye don’t.
Laser-sharp focus
Our first ruling is from 2022 and concerns a promotion. A paid-for Google ad for laser eye surgery stated “Laser Eye Surgery Belfast - £500 Off Online Offer. Achieve Freedom From Glasses With Laser Eye Treatment … Lifetime Guarantee”. However, when the complainant had asked for more information, they found out that the £500 discount was only applicable when complaints opted out of the Lifetime Guarantee (which would allow for lifelong care after the procedure) and instead opted in for 1 Year Aftercare package, which included appointments with optometrists, eye drops and any top-ups within the year.
Not only did the ASA consider that the advertisers hadn’t made clear a significant condition of the £500 offer, but they also found that the ad was irresponsible because it encouraged consumers to opt-out of life-long aftercare for a serious medical procedure for a significant discount.
You can read more about significant conditions for promotions here, and remember, any promotions need to be socially responsible, and, if you can’t fit all material information into your medium (i.e. a paid-for Google ad) then it could be that that medium is not suitable for your ad.
Blind offence
Moving swiftly on to another less than eye-deal ad, this time about offensiveness. In 2024, the ASA investigated a website for 247Blinds, which included text that said “Made-to-Measure Quality Blinds…WITHOUT HAVING YOUR EYES OUT! […] Blind envy starts here…” alongside an image of a person with paint splatters and stars over their eyes. The person who complained was severely sight-impaired and found the ad to be seriously offensive.
The advertiser said that the term “having your eyes out” was widely recognised as an expression to denote disbelief or unfavourable surprise to something that was overpriced. Whilst they recognised it could be considered poor taste, they thought consumers would find it funny rather than offensive.
Nevertheless, though the ASA acknowledged the intention, they considered the imagery and wording together would be a reference to blindness and had the effect of making light of a disability – the ad was therefore offensive.
It’s important to note that the ASA is never trying to stifle humour or creativity in advertising – however, there are times when humour can cross a line. When creating a humorous ad for your business, ask yourself – could this joke be considered offensive? If it’s borderline, is the joke worth the risk to your business? And if you’re still unsure, Copy Advice are always available.
Seeing is believing … with evidence
Our final case concerns a Facebook ad for Fancy Drops, who sell cosmetic eye products, including eye drops that would purportedly change your eye colour. The ad stated “SOLD OUT 5 TIMES – and for a good reason. You will throw away your color contacts! Introducing the revolutionary color changing product … Fancy Drops reduces even the dark brown eye color who want light eye color …”. Upon receipt of the complaint about the efficacy of the product, the ASA contacted the advertiser for their evidence but received no response. Therefore, as the ASA had not received any evidence that the product could do what the marketer said it could do, the complaint was upheld.
Marketers of cosmetic products, and, well… all other products… should always hold evidence that their product works in the way they say it does – this is especially true for cases where the product is used on the body. In this instance, the best-case scenario was that the eye drops did change the colour of your eye (hopefully temporarily), but worst-case scenario could be permanent eye damage from adding an unknown substance into the eyeball.
Marketers have a responsibility to ensure that their products are safe to be sold and have followed any testing that would be required. The ASA also has a high bar for cosmetic and health product evidence – you can read more about it here.
So, there we have it, three iris-sistable cases that explore the ASA’s approach to eye-related products and services – what a sight. As before, Copy Advice are more than happy to cast an eye over any upcoming ads you have.
But the big question is, did I get sick of the eye-related humour? Yes. Yes, I did.
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