Background
This Ruling forms part of a wider piece of work on laser eye surgery referral companies. The ad was identified for investigation following intelligence gathered by our Active Ad Monitoring system.
Ad description
A paid-for Facebook ad for Better Health & Wellness, posted on 24 April 2024, featured the caption “Leading laser vision correction offers here”. In a video below the caption, an individual addressed the camera and said, “This is how healthy your eyes actually are. I'm about to test you to tell you how healthy your eyes actually are. All you have to do is pick one out of the 10 colours that is different from the rest. And only about 5% of people can complete all four stages, let me know if you can.” A separate voice-over then stated, “To pass the full test, swipe left and start.” Text below the video stated, “Lasik Eye Surgery Prices”, besides which was a link labelled “Learn more”.
The link led to a landing page which contained a series of additional links that stated, “Eye Surgery To Correct Vision Cost (see Laser eye Surgeries In Covent Garden)”, “Lasic [sic] Eye Surgery Cost (see Laser eye Surgeries In Covent Garden)”, “Lasic [sic] Eye Surgery Cost – Lasic [sic] Eye Surgery Cost (see Laser eye Surgeries In Covent Garden)”, “Laser Eye Surgeries Near Me”, “Eye Surgeries Clinic Near Me – Lasic [sic] eye Surgery Cost (see Laser eye Surgeries In Covent Garden)”, Laser Cataract Surgery”, “Eye Surgery to Correct Vision Cost”, “Laser Eye Surgery Cost” and “Eye Laser Center”.
Issue
The ASA challenged whether the ad was misleading regarding the nature of the content that it linked through to, and that it falsely implied the marketer was acting for purposes outside its business.
Response
Media Quest Group t/a Better Health and Wellness did not respond to the ASA’s enquiries.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by Better Health and Wellness’ lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
The CAP Code stated that marketing communications must not falsely claim or imply that the marketer was acting for purposes outside its trade, business, craft or profession. It further stated that marketing communications must make clear their commercial intent if that was not obvious from the context.
The ad included a video that made references to the health of eyes, and specifically referred to “Leading laser vision correction offers” and “Lasik Eye Surgery Prices”. We considered consumers would expect that the ad linked directly to a page where they could access further information on offers and prices on LASIK surgery from specific clinics.
However, when clicked on, the ad took consumers to a landing page that featured a number of subheadings, such as: “Eye Surgery To Correct Vision Cost (see Laser eye Surgeries In Covent Garden)”, “Laser Eye Surgeries Near Me”, “Eye Surgery to Correct Vision Cost”, “Laser Eye Surgery Cost” and “Eye Laser Center”.
Instead, we understood that the landing page for the ad was a ‘parked domain’ website set up by Better Health and Wellness. We understood that domain parking was the registration of an internet domain name without that domain being associated with services such as email or a website. Domain parking could be done for various reasons, including reserving the domain name for future development or to protect the domain name from use by others. Domain parking could also be monetised by operating a single-page website which hosted ads, as was the case here. Ads which linked through to the parked domain website would then generate income from the host of the parked domain through the impressions it collected.
The ad therefore misleadingly implied that when clicked on, it would direct consumers to information on offers and prices on LASIK surgery from specific clinics, when that was not the case. We considered the nature of the content the ad linked through to would likely have a significant impact on whether or not consumers chose to engage with them. We therefore considered that the nature of the content to which the ad linked through to should have been made clear and, because it did not do so, we concluded the ad was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 2.3 (Recognition of marketing communications) and 3.1 (Misleading advertising).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Media Quest Group t/a Better Health and Wellness to ensure that their ads did not mislead consumers as to the nature of the content they would receive if they engaged with them. Ads for parked domain sites should make clear if the only content consumers would be served with by clicking on the ad would be more ads or links to search results.
