Background
This Ruling forms part of a wider piece of work on rehab clinic referral companies. The ad was identified for investigation following complaints received from the Ethical Marketing Campaign for Addiction Treatment (EMCAT).
Summary of Council decision:
Three issues were investigated, all of which were Upheld.
Ad description
The website homepage www.help4addiction.co.uk and a second page on the website “Find Rehab Clinic”, for Help 4 Addiction seen in July 2024.
The homepage stated: “HELP 4 ADDICTION. CALL US NOW FOR FREE AND CONFIDENTIAL ADVICE”; “Find The Perfect Treatment For You. Whether you are dealing with addiction or a friend, family member or a loved one has an addiction, we can ensure you receive the right support. Free and Confidential. Support available 24/7”; “Our dedicated team of experts is [sic] committed to providing comprehensive assistance and guidance to those struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. We offer a range of treatment options tailored to individual needs, including counselling, therapy, detoxification, and aftercare support”; and “What Addictions Can We Help Treat?”. This was followed by six boxes with the headings “Alcohol Addiction”, “Drug Addiction”, “Cocaine Addiction”, “Heroin Addiction”, “Ketamine Addiction” and “Prescription Drugs”, and “Find Your Local Rehab. Locate nearby rehabs for addiction treatment and support”.
Further text stated, “Regularly Featured In The Press” and directly beneath had the logos of The Sun, BBC, Sky News and Daily Mirror.
The page headed “Find Rehab Clinic” stated, “This section covers all of the listings for rehab treatment clinics via the locations we cover. Help4Addiction works with a number of rehab clinics across the UK as well as abroad. Depending on where you want to go for rehab, you can browse through the list of areas and find a rehab clinic that is right for you”. It then listed a number of locations under the heading “UK Cities & Towns” and counties under the heading “UK Counties and Countries”, all of which were hyperlinked.
Issue
The complainant, Ethical Marketing Campaign for Addiction Treatment (EMCAT) challenged whether the:
- website falsely implied that the marketer was acting for purposes outside its business and did not make clear their commercial intent; and
- claim “Find Your Local Rehab. Locate nearby rehabs for addiction treatment and support” misleadingly implied local treatment facilities could be accessed via the website.
- The ASA challenged whether the claim “Regularly Featured In The Press” on the home page was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
1. Help 4 Addiction Ltd stated that nowhere on the website did they say that they owned any clinics.They explained that one out of every ten enquiries they received had no funding. They supported those individuals to access free treatment. They also supported, at no extra charge, those who were not suffering from addiction directly but who were affected, such as family members.
They confirmed that they operated www.rehubs.com which was an online rehabilitation service for addictions. It was not CQC (Care Quality Commission) registered as online therapy did not need a CQC registration.
They said they would add a question mark symbol beside their phone number and contact form on the website. If clicked on, pop-up text would make clear that the caller would be contacting the admissions team at Help 4 Addiction. It would further state that Help 4 Addiction worked with a network of addiction rehabs throughout the UK, and also some internationally.
2. Help 4 Addiction said that they worked with approximately 20 rehabilitation clinics in the UK. They did not however list the clinics on the website as they were not a directory service. Their online service also applied to all locations and they provided that as an option to enquirers if it was suitable.
3. Help 4 Addiction provided links to online news articles for The Sun, Sky News, BBC, the Daily Mirror, as well as other publications.
Assessment
1. Upheld
The ASA noted the home page stated that Help 4 Addiction were “committed to providing exceptional alcohol and drug rehabilitation services across the UK”. It further made multiple references to treatments they could offer and either attributed that work to themselves, by using “we”, or by otherwise implying they provided the service. For instance, it stated, “We offer a range of treatment options tailored to individual needs, including counselling, therapy, detoxification, and aftercare support”, “What Addictions Can We Help Treat?” and ““Find The Perfect Treatment For You … we can ensure you receive the right support”. It further stated, “What Treatment Best Suits You” and listed the options as “Residential Rehab”, “Home Detox” and “Online Rehab”. We considered consumers were likely to interpret the claims to mean that Help 4 Addiction provided treatment directly at clinics that they owned or operated.
We acknowledged the changes made by Help 4 Addiction on the website and that they ran an online rehabilitation service for addictions that was not CQC registered. We understood however that apart from that, Help 4 Addiction was primarily a referral centre that connected consumers seeking support for addiction with a selection of registered treatment providers, and that they received commission for doing so. The changes to the website included a question mark by the phone number at the top of the home page that stated that they worked with a network of addiction rehabs. However, that information had to be clicked on to reveal those details. The website therefore was still not immediately clear that Help 4 Addiction did not provide in person treatment directly and that those treatments listed on the website would be from selected third-party registered providers. The website also did not prominently or explicitly make clear what their business model was and how they were funded.
Because the ad did not make immediately clear that they were principally a referral company that received commission for placements with partner rehabilitation facilities, and instead suggested they provided treatment directly at clinics that they owned or operated, we concluded that the ad implied that Help 4 Addiction were acting for purposes outside their business, and did not make clear their commercial intent, and therefore breached the Code.
On that point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 2.3 (Recognition of Marketing Communications).
2. Upheld
The home page stated, “Find Your Local Rehab” and “Locate nearby rehab centres for addiction treatment and support. Find local rehab options to begin your journey to recovery”. Text adjacent to that claim stated, “START YOUR JOURNEY TODAY” and linked to the “Find Rehab Clinic” page. That page stated, “This section covers all of the listings for rehab treatment clinics via the locations we cover. Help4Addiction works with a number of rehab clinics across the UK as well as abroad. Depending on where you want to go for rehab, you can browse through the list of areas and find a rehab clinic that is right for you”. We considered that consumers were likely to understand the claims to mean that the “Find Rehab Clinic” page would provide specific details of rehabilitation centres that they could access in each of those local areas in the UK and abroad.
The “Find Rehab Clinic” page listed and hyperlinked 58 towns and cities, and 46 counties, in the UK. In addition, it separately listed and hyperlinked Northen Ireland, Scotland, Thailand, UK and Europe. While the links provided some level of local detail, for instance some listed local free services for addiction, no details of individual clinics were provided.
We understood that Help 4 Addiction worked with 20 in-person treatment centres in the UK. The locations listed on the “Find Rehab Clinic” page therefore far exceeded the number of centres they operated with. Because the “Find Rehab Clinic” page did not list specific details of rehabilitation centres in the local areas and beyond as implied, and because we understood they did not provide access to clinics in all the areas listed, we concluded that the ad was misleading.
On that point the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 3.1 (Misleading Advertising).
3. Upheld
The CAP Code stated that before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers were likely to regard as objective and that were capable of objective substantiation.
We considered that consumers were likely to understand that the claim “Regularly Featured In The Press”, alongside the four media logos, to mean that Help 4 Addiction and their work had been discussed and highlighted within those media entities regularly and including recently.
Help 4 Addiction submitted four press articles, two from The Sun and two from The Daily Mirror. They also provided links to two BBC radio shows and a short online video of a clip from one of those radio shows, as well as links to a Sky News podcast and an online video of Sky News.
The two articles from The Sun, one from The Daily Mirror, the Sky News podcast and the two BBC radio links discussed the CEO of Help 4 Addiction’s former life as a police officer and his struggles with cocaine addiction. The Sun article and the Sky News podcast mentioned Help 4 Addiction, amongst other resources for drink and drugs problems, and highlighted the Help 4 Addiction website. Help 4 Addiction were not explicitly named in The Daily Mirror article or the BBC radio items.
The second article from The Daily Mirror highlighted the high levels of drink and drug addiction in the police force. It explained that Help 4 Addiction and Rehubs.com had teamed up with the Police Federation partnership to offer free support. An online video showed Help 4 Addiction’s CEO being interviewed on Sky News. The interview discussed a survey Help 4 Addiction had carried out on the increase in alcohol consumption in lockdown.
We acknowledged that Help 4 Addiction and their CEO had featured in articles or media for The Sun, BBC, Sky News and The Daily Mirror. However, in the majority of the evidence we had assessed, the focus had been on the CEO’s early life and his recovery from cocaine addiction. While Help 4 Addiction was often mentioned in those pieces, the references were brief and the media itself was not focused on the company or any work they did. The exceptions to that were The Daily Mirror article that talked about the partnership Help 4 Addiction had with the Police Federation partnership and the Sky News interview, which was from 2020, around the survey Help 4 Addiction had done on alcohol consumption in lockdown. Taken as a whole, while we acknowledged the evidence provided by Help 4 Addiction, we considered it did not demonstrate that Help 4 Addiction’s work alone had regularly and recently featured in the media outlined on the home page and therefore concluded that the claim was misleading.
On that point the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading Advertising) and 3.7 (Substantiation).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Help 4 Addiction Ltd to ensure that their advertising did not falsely imply they were acting for purposes outside their business, not to imply that they provided treatment directly at clinics that they owned or operated if they did not and to make clear that they were a referral company that received commission for their service. They must not make claims that a local rehab facility could be accessed using their website if that was not the case and that they must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers were likely to regard as objective.
