ASA bans ad for LIPObind weight-loss pills
LIPObind ad: claimed that the pill would 'take the nation by storm'
The advertising regulator has banned an ad for a pill that promised to help people lose weight after the claims were found to be based on tests on hamsters and guinea pigs, not robust human trials.
A national ad campaign for LIPObind claimed to offer a "clinically proven fat binding pill ... a pill that has been tried and tested and proven to bind fat".
The ad also made a range of claims that the pill would "take the nation by storm" and that "there are no gimmicks, no fad diets, no additional exercise routines that have to be undertaken, in fact you can still indulge yourself with your favourite treat every now and again".
These claims were challenged by the Advertising Standards Authority, which asked the company behind the product, Goldshield Healthcare Direct, whether it could substantiate the statements made in the LIPObind ad.
Other claims included that the pill "helps suppress appetite", "helps decrease food cravings", "helps lower blood cholesterol" and offers assistance with "weight management".
One member of the public also challenged the fact that the "freephone" number in the ad was for a paid-for service.
Goldshield admitted that the phone number should never have been advertised as free.
Ina lengthy defence the company argued that the product had a relevant "CE" mark under the European Medical Devices Directive, which meant it was completely legitimately covered under the "production, marketing and sales of tablets for weight management".
However, the company did agree to remove a number of the claims about cholesterol, food cravings, appetite suppression and the "no gimmicks" line.
But Goldshield maintained that it was allowed to market the pill with phrases relating to "weight management".
The ASA asked for evidence to prove that the claims surrounding the pill had been "backed by rigorous trials on people".
It noted that much of Goldshield's evidence was based on "in vitro" studies - in a controlled environment outside of a living organism - and that the "in vivo studies had been carried out on obese, diabetic or ileostomy subjects or hamsters and guinea pigs".
Other studies presented by Goldshield, about one of the ingredients of LIPObind, were also rejected by the ASA on similar grounds of providing a lack of sufficient in vivo evidence.
"We considered that the claim that the product could bind to fat and the claim 'clincially proven' were not demonstrated by the evidence sent to us," the ASA said in its ruling.
The ASA banned all of the claims it challenged as misleading and told the company "not to imply that the product could bind to fat in the absence of robust evidence that proved it could".
Mark Sweney
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