Vir Health and Numan have breached Britain’s drug advertising rules with claims the companies made in a recent TV ad for hair-loss drug Regaine, which contains minoxidil and is called Rogaine in the U.S.
This came about after a British-based viewer complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and U.K. drug regulator the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) about a TV ad for Regaine for Men Extra Strength Scalp Solution, originally aired back in May.
The issue centers on the use of a guarantee. In the ad’s voice-over, the narrator says: “What is gone could be got back, have hope, grow more hair. Do something about hair loss.” Voice-over and large text stated together, “Clinically proven … Now with the Numan money back guarantee. See results in 180 days or your money back.”
The issue for the regulators was whether the ad was trying to link the guarantee to a clinically proven efficacy—a promise you cannot make in a commercial in the U.K. The companies, when challenged, said they did not believe the ad suggested that the product was guaranteed to work for all consumers but that, if it was not effective, customers could obtain a refund.
But the ASA and the MHRA thought differently, and, while they acknowledged the ad used some cautious wording—i.e., “What is gone could be got back, have hope”—they considered that the wording that followed it—“Grow more hair. Do something about hair loss”—“was more definite.”
“Because we considered, in the context of the ad, the money-back guarantee was likely to be interpreted as guaranteeing efficacy of the product, we concluded that the ad breached the Code [which prohibits such a guarantee],” the ASA said in a statement.
Both the ASA and the MHRA ruled that the ad “must not appear again in the form complained of” and mandated Vir and Numan “not to refer to the money-back guarantee in a way that claimed or implied that efficacy of the product was guaranteed.”