In this decision, a complaint had been made about claims made in respect of a product listing for the “Exosome Face Lift” on the website of 111SKIN. The claims included, among others, “Clinically proven To Lift The Skin by 20%**”, “helps visibly lift and tighten the skin” and “visibly renew and rejuvenate the skin in 4 weeks”. While 111SKIN provided evidence to support this from a small clinical trial and other subjective testing, the ASA found that the ad was misleading and that the use of qualifying terms such as “helps” and “supports” were not enough to mitigate the lack of robust supporting scientific evidence.

The ASA stated that the claims would lead consumers to understand that the product would have “a significant lifting effect to the skin on the face” and so a high-level body of evidence was needed to support such claim sand the evidence 111SKIN presented did not meet this threshold. The study carried out was only conducted on 30 participants over 28 days and whilst further corroborated by subjective reports from participants, these were unquantifiable, taken from a limited sample group tested over 2 or 4 weeks and most importantly included no placebo or control group.

Key takeaways

“Clinical” Claims:

If brands wish to reference “clinical” trials or results, the testing of cosmetic, skincare and haircare products should:

1. Include a placebo or control group;
2. Use an objective measurement method if quantifiable benefits are to be used (e.g “20% lift”); and
3. Test sufficient numbers of people within the study, to increase the reliability of the results.

Implied Claims:

The ASA is looking at the overall impression conveyed to the consumer so also be aware:

1. Active effect language such as “lift”, “regenerate”, “younger”, “tighten”, “rejuvenate” or “reduce” should be avoided without clear clinical evidence;
2. Qualifiers such as “appearance”, “visibly”, “helps” and “supports” may not be sufficient to reduce the impression conveyed by language suggesting a particular proven clinical effect.

The overall direction is clear, advertisers of cosmetic products are expected to hold evidence from more rigorous scientific testing when making strong efficacy claims.  This is particularly the case where ads invoke science or biotech, utilise scientific wording, refer to clinical testing or measurable biological effects.

As always, please get in touch with our Advertising & Marketing team if you have any concerns about substantiating any claims in your advertising.