Ad description
A teleshopping presentation for a blue and red light therapy electric toothbrush, seen on The Jewellery Channel on 10 April 2024.
During the presentation, a TJC presenter made a number of claims regarding the effects of using the product. He stated, "It will remove staining, it will kill bacteria … if you’ve got gingivitis [...] this is sanitising [...] The benefits of red light therapy […] it would regerminate, regenerate, heal, grow […] picked up by medical professional for burns and for healing […] Now they’ve proven that light therapy actually can transform the human body in many ways […] Red light therapy is medically, clinically, and scientifically proven that it will stimulate. Now, if you’ve got receding gums ... dentists will tell you they can’t be repaired, damage is done. But red light therapy is clinically, medically, and scientifically proven that it will work on cell regeneration, regrowth, reperforming .... maybe you’ve got other [sic] form of dental decay [...] it will kill bacteria, it will help regrowth, it will help stimulate fresh blood […] if you’ve got receding gums, gingivitis, any decay that is in around your mouth [...] we know that red light therapy has the ability to increase blood flow, to work on cell regeneration, to work on renewal of collagen, fibroblast […] so now for the first time in history, we now have a toothbrush that physically has the capabilities to rebuild your mouth [...] Blue light therapy for bacterial reduction, teeth whitening, gum health […] Red light therapy, for tissue healing, increased circulation, reduced inflammation.”
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the medical claims breached the Code.
Response
Shop TJC Ltd t/a TJC said many of their products were supplied by third-party partners and, therefore, they usually relied on information received from those suppliers when making product claims. At the time of responding, they were working to ascertain whether the claims in the ad had been based on information provided by the product supplier.
However, they had established that the product supplier had not conducted clinical or medical studies on the product, although they had examined a number of studies assessing the effects of light therapy specifically in relation to bacteria, which TJC believed were the source of mouth and dental problems that had been referred to in their presentation.
They said the presenter qualified their comments by highlighting that they were neither a dentist nor were they able to give dental or medical advice. They also supplied the studies that had been provided by the manufacturer.In response to the complaint, they alerted the presenter, suspended promotion of the product pending the outcome of the investigation and said that the claims would not be repeated in future.
Assessment
Upheld
The Medical Devices Regulation (2002) required that a medical device should be registered with the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) before it was placed on the market in Great Britain. The ASA understood that the product was not registered with the MHRA as a medical device.
The BCAP Code stated that teleshopping presentations for medical treatments for humans or animals were not acceptable. We considered consumers would understand, “it will kill bacteria … if you’ve got gingivitis [...] this is sanitising”, “if you’ve got receding gums, gingivitis, any decay that is in around your mouth [...] we know that red light therapy has the ability to increase blood flow, to work on cell regeneration, to work on renewal of collagen, fibroblast […]” as well as “if you’ve got receding gums ... dentists will tell you they can’t be repaired, damage is done […] it will work on cell regeneration, regrowth, reperforming” as claims that the toothbrush could be used to treat periodontal disease, which included gingivitis and receding gums. We further considered that consumers would understand “maybe you’ve got other [sic] form of dental decay [...] it will kill bacteria, it will help regrowth, it will help stimulate fresh blood” to mean that the product was able to treat dental decay. In addition, we considered the claims “Blue light therapy for bacterial reduction, teeth whitening, gum health […]” and “Red light therapy, for tissue healing, increased circulation, reduced inflammation” reinforced the impression that the product could prevent dental decay.
Therefore, we considered that within the context of the ad as a whole, viewers were likely to understand the above claims made in the presentation to mean that the product could be used to treat and alleviate various oral health conditions, and considered the ad breached the Code on that basis.
In addition, the Code required that medicinal or medical claims and indications were made only for a medicinal product that was licensed by the MHRA, the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) or under the auspices of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), or for a medical device with the applicable conformity marking. We considered that the claims, as set out above, were medical claims and therefore required that the product met the requirements for medical devices. However, as above, we understood the product was not registered with the MHRA, nor had we seen any evidence to demonstrate the product was a medical device with the applicable conformity marking. Notwithstanding that the ad breached the Code by being a teleshopping presentation for medical treatments for humans, we considered no medical claims could be made for the product, and the ad also breached the Code on that basis.
For those reasons, we concluded that the ad breached the Code.
The ad breached BCAP Code rules 1.3 (Compliance), 11.4, 11.12 and 11.12.3 (Medical devices).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Shop TJC Ltd t/a TJC to ensure teleshopping ads did not promote products or services that were medical treatments for humans, and not to make medical claims for products that did not have the applicable conformity marking and were not licensed by the MHRA.
