Ad description
Two ads for Lucy Isabella Beauty & Aesthetics, a clinic offering beauty and wellness procedures, seen on 16 January 2022:
a. A post on Lucy Isabella Beauty & Aesthetics’ Instagram page stated, “Kenalog (Hay-fever) [sic] injections help to reduce a multitude of nasty symptoms associated with hay-fever [sic] and allergy season … I now have kenalog injections at £40 per shot (syringe emoji). Please contact me to book in … A banner accompanying the text stated, “Kenalog helps to reduce … Sneezing, Use of medications, Itchiness, Runny nose, Coughing, Rashes”.
b. A post on the advertiser’s Facebook page featured the same text and banner as ad (a).
Issue
The ASA challenged whether the ads breached the Code because they advertised Kenalog, a prescription-only medicine, to the public.Response
Lucy Isabella Beauty & Aesthetics did not respond to the ASA’s enquires.Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by Lucy Isabella Beauty & Aesthetics’ lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 1.7 Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code. (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to provide a response to our enquiries and told them to do so in the future.
The CAP Code stated that prescription-only medicines or prescription-only medical treatments must not be advertised to the public.We understood that Kenalog was a prescription-only medicine. The posts stated “Kenalog (Hay-fever) [sic] injections help to reduce a multitude of nasty symptoms associated with hay-fever [sic] … I now have kenalog injections at £40 per shot … Please contact me to book in …” and were visible to anyone visiting Lucy Isabella Beauty & Aesthetics’ Instagram and Facebook pages. We therefore considered the ads promoted prescription-only medicines to the general public, and concluded that they breached the Code.
The ads breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.7 1.7 Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code. (Unreasonable delay) and 12.12 12.12 Prescription-only medicines or prescription-only medical treatments may not be advertised to the public. (Medicines, medical devices, health-related products and beauty products).
Action
The ads must not appear again in their current form. We told Lucy Isabella Beauty & Aesthetics not to promote prescription-only medicines to the general public in future. We referred the matter to CAP’s Compliance team.
