The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld two complaints against a CBD advert that appeared on the Gemporia television channel on 22 May 2021.
The UK’s advertising regulator, the ASA, has conducted an investigation into a teleshopping presentation for ProLife CBD Oils, which featured on Gemporia, and made numerous claims about the health benefits of the CBD products.
Featuring a presenter from Gemporia and one of the co-founders from ProLife CBD, the advert made reference that the products were registered with the Food Standards Agency (FSA), and claimed the products could help with conditions such as schizophrenia, mad cow disease, sickle cell anaemia, addiction, and antibiotic resistance, amongst other health conditions.
The claims were challenged on whether the advert was misleading, whether the oils are effective for treating the claimed conditions, and whether the health claims complied with the UK Code of Broadcast Advertising (BCAP).
The ASA ruled that the presentation breached the BCAP Code rules 13.6 and 13.6.2, related to food, food supplements and associated health or nutrition claims.
In response to the complaints, the ASA noted that “Gemporia said they were not able to substantiate the claims or demonstrate that they were authorised claims in the Great Britain nutrition and health claims (NHC) Register (the NHC Register)”, and that “they had understood that because a Novel Foods application had been submitted to the FSA, the products were allowed to be marketed and any references made in relation to this were based on that assumption, but that they had misunderstood the context.”
The ASA said: “The ASA considered that consumers would understand from the presentation that ProLife CBD oils could treat or help with all the conditions that were mentioned, including those that appeared on the two presentation slides, in the testimonials and those mentioned by the presenters.
“We concluded the claims implied the product, a food, prevented, treated or cured human disease, which was prohibited under the Code.”
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