Background
Summary of Council decision:
Two issues were investigated, both of which were Upheld.
Ad description
An in-game ad for the mobile app game Vita Mahjong, seen on 20 July 2024 in the mobile app game Crossword Jam, featured a man wearing blue medical scrubs. On-screen text stated, “I recommended [sic] you to play Vita Mahjong […] It’s a game designed Exclusively for people with memory loss and sleep loss […] Play it for 30 minutes everyday it will greatly help you with memory and sleep”.
Issue
Two complainants challenged whether:
- the ad discouraged essential treatment for conditions for which medical supervision should be sought, namely memory loss problems; and
- the claims that the game could help people with sleep loss problems were misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
Vita Studio Pte Ltd said that upon being made aware of the complaint, they had conducted a thorough review and taken action to address the issues raised. They said the ad had been removed from circulation, apologised for any issues it may have caused, and confirmed that they would be strengthening their internal review processes, to help ensure future ads adhered to the CAP Code and industry standards.
Assessment
1. Upheld
The CAP Code stated that marketers must not discourage essential treatment for conditions for which medical supervision should be sought. For example, they must not offer specific advice on, diagnosis of, or treatment for such conditions, unless that advice, diagnosis or treatment was conducted under the supervision of a suitably qualified medical professional.The ad stated, “It’s a game designed Exclusively for people with memory loss […] Play it for 30 minutes everyday it will greatly help you with memory”. We considered that implied that the Vita Mahjong mobile app game could help people suffering from memory loss problems. We considered that memory loss was a condition for which medical supervision should be sought. While we welcomed Vita Studio’s assurance that the ad had been removed from circulation, they did not supply any evidence in their response which showed that their app provided treatment conducted under the supervision of a suitably qualified medical professional.
We therefore concluded that the ad discouraged essential treatment for conditions for which medical supervision should be sought and had breached the Code.
On that point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 12.2 (Medicines, medical devices, health-related products and beauty products).
2. Upheld
We considered that consumers would understand the claim “It’s a game designed Exclusively for people with […] sleep loss […] Play it for 30 minutes everyday it will greatly help you with […] sleep” to mean that the Vita Mahjong mobile app game was capable of helping people who suffer from problems with sleep loss to improve their sleeping, if they played the game for 30 minutes daily. We further considered that the appearance of the man seen in the ad, who was wearing medical scrubs, reinforced the impression that the app could provide a medical benefit to users.
We therefore expected to see robust documentary evidence substantiating the claim that playing the Vita Mahjong app would help with sleep problems, consisting of clinical trials conducted on people. However, as above, we received no evidence from the advertiser to substantiate that the app could help people suffering with sleep loss.
In the absence of such evidence, we concluded that the claim had not been substantiated and was therefore misleading.
On that point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 3.7 (Substantiation), and 12.1 (Medicines, medical devices, health-related products and beauty products).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Vita Studio Pte Ltd not to make claims that discouraged the essential treatment for a condition for which medical supervision should be sought. We also told them to ensure that they did not make claims that stated or implied that they could help treat sleep loss problems.
