Background
This Ruling forms part of a wider piece of work on ads making claims about the treatment of symptoms of the menopause. The ad was identified for investigation following intelligence gathered by our Active Ad Monitoring system, which uses AI to proactively search for online ads that might break the rules.
Ad description
A paid-for Facebook ad for Feel, a supplement brand, seen on 1 May 2024, featured an image of the Feel Menopause product. Large text on the image stated, “Natural Menopause Support”, with smaller text underneath ? “Hot Flushes”, “Sleep”, “Fatigue” and “Night sweats”. The image also contained a testimonial that stated, “I have been using these for well over a year and have no more headaches, muscle aches or hot flushes”. The accompanying caption stated, “Relieve the symptoms of Perimenopause, Menopause, and Post-menopause naturally with the UK’s most reviewed menopause supplement […] Feel Menopause is a completely natural menopause support designed to target common symptoms such as: Hot flushes Night sweats Hormonal balance Low mood and bad sleep”.
Issue
The ASA challenged whether the claims in the ad that stated or implied the supplement could help to treat or cure symptoms of perimenopause, menopause and post-menopause were in breach of the Code.Response
Feel Holdings Ltd t/a Feel stated that using customer reviews was common practice in social media advertising, and the specific testimonial used in the ad was verified that it was from a genuine customer who reviewed the product after their purchase. They added that the ad was no longer appearing.Assessment
Upheld
The CAP Code prohibited claims that stated or implied a food could prevent, treat or cure human disease.
The ASA considered that consumers would understand from various claims in the caption and in the image that the supplement was intended to treat or cure the symptoms associated with menopause - for example, “Relieve the symptoms of Perimenopause, Menopause, and Post-menopause”, “menopause supplement” and “natural menopause support”. The ad further stated that the product was “designed to target common symptoms” and listed specific symptoms such as: “Hot flushes”; “Night sweats”; “Hormonal balance”; “Low mood and bad sleep”; “Sleep”; and “Fatigue”.
The ad also included a testimonial from a customer who said that, after taking the product, they stopped experiencing “headaches, muscle aches [and] hot flushes”. We considered that consumers would understand from these claims that the product could treat hot flushes, problems with sleeping, hormonal imbalances and muscle aches and joint pains, which were, as implied by the ad, specific symptoms of menopause and would be understood as such.
Those claims that the supplement could treat or cure symptoms of the menopause, both in general terms and in relation to specifically described symptoms, were, for the purposes of the Code, claims to treat disease. Such claims were prohibited for food and food supplements.
We concluded that the ad made claims that a food supplement could prevent, treat or cure disease and therefore it breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 15.6 and 15.6.2 (Food, food supplements and associated health or nutrition claims).
Action
The ad must not appear again. We told Feel Holdings Ltd t/a Feel not to state or imply their food supplements could prevent, treat or cure human disease, which for the purposes of the Code included claims to treat or cure the symptoms of menopause.
