Ad description
The website for the skincare and cosmetics company, Clinique, www.clinique.co.uk, seen on 15 August 2018, featured a web page for their “Fresh Pressed” range. Text at the top of the page stated “Fresh means power. Clinique Fresh Pressed harnesses the full power of pure, fresh Vitamin C to brighten, even, retexturize - and deliver remarkable de-aging results in just 7 days”. To the left was an image of the Daily Booster product surrounded by a cloud of orange powder.
Issue
Fushi Wellbeing, who understood that all the listed ingredients were chemically derived, challenged whether the claim “Fresh Pressed” was misleading
Response
Clinique said the Clinique Fresh Pressed 7 Day System was a two-step system comprised of seven single-use packets of Renewing Powder Cleanser with pure vitamin C and a 7-day vial of Daily Booster comprising 10% pure vitamin C.
They said that pure vitamin C naturally degraded when exposed to oxygen and was more powerful when fresh. They had therefore designed the product packaging in a way which isolated the pure vitamin C for both products until consumers used it. The “Fresh Pressed” name was therefore a reference to the consumer being able to “press” fresh vitamin C products at home, by pressing the button on the Daily Booster Device and when the single-use cleanser packets with vitamin C were “pressed” into use between the palms of the hands. In each case, the freshness of the vitamin C product was maintained by the packaging until the consumer “pressed” it into activation.
Clinique said they did not think that consumers would interpret the term “Fresh Pressed” to mean that ingredients would be pressed fresh from fruit or natural ingredients, particularly in the context it appeared on their website. They said that text under the section “What Else You Need to Know” made this clear when it stated “Fresh means powerful. Pure Vitamin C naturally degrades when exposed to oxygen, so it’s most powerful when fresh. Stay-fresh packaging isolates the pure Vitamin C until activation, maintaining its freshness and full power for maximum results”. That explanation was compounded by the diagrams of how to use the products and “press” them into action.
Clinique said vitamin C was a chemical and that they made no claim that their product was natural, nor was there any reason that consumers would interpret it as such. They did not believe the exclusive meaning of the term “Fresh Pressed” was that it was pressed fresh from fruit or other natural ingredients, such as seeds or nuts. They said that consumers were aware that they were a prestige cosmetic company, stocked in the cosmetic section of various stores. They were not, nor had they ever been, stocked in the food and drinks section of those stores, therefore there was no reason why consumers would interpret “Fresh Pressed” in the context of their cosmetics products in the same way that they would in the context of a food product.
Assessment
Not upheld
The ASA noted that the claim in the ad stated “Fresh means power. Clinique Fresh Pressed harnesses the full power of pure, fresh Vitamin C to brighten, even, retexturize - and deliver remarkable de-aging results in just 7 days”. We understood that the complainant was concerned that the claim “Fresh Pressed” implied that the product had been freshly pressed from fruit, or other natural ingredients and immediately bottled, for example, like freshly pressed orange juice,.
However, we considered that the claim would be interpreted by consumers to mean that the product contained fresh vitamin C rather than any specific natural ingredient. We further noted that the ad did not include any claims that the product was natural, nor did it refer to specific natural ingredients. We noted that additional information was provided further down the page about how the product worked.
Because we considered that consumers were likely to understand that it was the vitamin C which was fresh and were unlikely to infer that the product contained freshly pressed natural ingredients, we concluded that the claim “Fresh Pressed” was unlikely to mislead.
We investigated the ad under CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising), but did not find it in breach.
Action
No further action necessary
