March 26, 2009
Victory
Last January I urged readers to make a complaint to the Advertising Standards Agency regarding a series of adverts by Maximuscle Protein on the London Underground. I know from checking the “links clicked” function that a fair number of people did.
Well, today I received a letter from the ASA saying:
“As we advised, we contacted Maximuscle Ltd to request substantiation for the claims made in their posters. Maximuscle responded by acknowledging the potential problem presented by the posters in their present form. They advised us that the posters would be removed by their media provider. They also signalled their willingness to follow our advice on how future posters could be amended to avoid the impression that the use of their products and two gym sessions a week could achieve the results implied by the gneral message of the ad.
We have obtained their written assurance that they will make more prominent the other factors, such as diet, involved in achieving the results. We have also asked them to clarify the length of time taken for the results to become apparent as this is clearly a relevant qualification to claims highlighting the benefits of their products. We shall keep a copy of their assurance on file and close the investigation on that basis.”
Which has cheered me up no end. I do suspect Maximuscle’s ad run had already finished by the time they “agreed” to remove the posters, but the point is that if they try it again, the ASA are watching them.
Thanks to everyone who helped.
Ste For Sure said,
March 26, 2009 at 4:00 pm
awesome.