Background
Summary of Council decision.
Two issues were investigated, both of which were Upheld.
Ad description
A website advertising a homecare service, www.caring4u.co.uk included a page entitled "ABOUT US" with the text "Dr Tony Clarke-Holland PhD is passionate about what he sees as the failing care for individuals in their own home and is determined to address the situation by providing superb, professional care for people without cutting corners".
Issue
Andrew Rosindell MP, on behalf of his constituent, challenged whether the claim "Dr Tony Clarke-Holland PhD" was misleading, because:
1. it implied Tony Clarke-Holland had a medical qualification, because they understood he did not; and
2. they understood that the PhD was not awarded by an accredited university.
Response
1. Caring 4 U (UK) Ltd (Caring 4 U) said they understood how the use of the Dr title could imply that an individual had a medical qualification when they were pushing their skills as the main individual within a business, but stated that this was not the case with their own website. They said the overall message of the Caring 4U website was that it offered care for people within their own home and that this service was performed by their excellent carers. They said that the duties were listed on the website and that it did not state or imply that the organisation operated as a result of having access to a 'medical' doctor or any other sort of doctor (on call, supporting, etc.). They believed that by the time an individual read through all of the relevant material and reached tab six (of eight), the one line that referred to the founder's vision of the company was, in the context of the site as a whole, not misleading.
They stated that over the 11 years that they had been operating for, they had never received a query about Dr Tony Clarke-Holland and his background or skills and those queries tended to relate to the services being offered. They believed this demonstrated that it was clear about the service and that the one line the complainant saw as being misleading was not. They said the "Dr" title was clarified with "PhD" making it clear that he was not a medical doctor and reiterated that this had to be considered within the context of the ad in its entirety.
2. They believed the fact the PhD was not awarded by an "accredited university" was a moot point and questioned who decided which University was accredited, and which was not.
Assessment
1. Upheld
The ASA noted the website consisted of information about the various care options (provided in the customer's own home) available through the service and considered that the website made clear that all elements of that care was provided by qualified carers. We noted the "About Us" section of the website provided background information about the company and included a reference to the founder and director who was referred to as "Dr Tony Clarke-Holland PhD". We understood the qualification gained was in Clinical Hypnosis and noted this was not referenced on the web page. Although the qualification title appeared in the "About Us" section of the website and not in direct reference to the specific care services provided, we considered that it would be understood within the overall context of a website offering home care for vulnerable individuals, which was a health-related service. We therefore considered that, without clear qualification to state that Tony Clarke-Holland was not a medical doctor, visitors to the website would understand that the doctorate qualification referred to in reference to the company director was a medical qualification and that this qualification may have affected decisions relating to the type of care that was offered to the company's customers and patients. We therefore concluded that the ad was misleading.
On this point the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
3.1
3.1
Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
3.3
3.3
Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.
Material information is information that the consumer needs to make informed decisions in relation to a product. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead the consumer depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the marketing communication is constrained by time or space, the measures that the marketer takes to make that information available to the consumer by other means.
(Misleading advertising) and
3.7
3.7
Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation.
(Substantiation).
2. Upheld
We noted the Clinical Hypnosis qualification referred to in the ad was awarded by Breyer State University, which was a US based online University. We understood that the University was not accredited by the US Department of Education and that it was therefore classed in the US as an 'unaccredited University'. We considered that visitors to the Caring4U website would understand from the references to the "Dr" and "PhD" titles that the PhD had been obtained from an educational institution that was formally recognised and considered that the acceptable use of the title in UK advertising would need to be guided by the formal position of the US Education Department. We therefore concluded that without a qualification to state that the degree was from an unaccredited US university, the use of the "Dr" and "PhD" title in the ad was misleading.
On this point the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
3.1
3.1
Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
3.3
3.3
Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.
Material information is information that the consumer needs to make informed decisions in relation to a product. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead the consumer depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the marketing communication is constrained by time or space, the measures that the marketer takes to make that information available to the consumer by other means.
(Misleading advertising) and
3.7
3.7
Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation.
(Substantiation).
Action
The ad should not appear again in its current form. We told Caring 4 U that references to the "Dr" and "PhD" titles needed to be qualified to make clear that Tony Clarke-Holland was not medically qualified and that the qualification was from an unaccredited University.
