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Johannesburg - Direct marketer Glomail has lost its appeal against having its advertisements pre-cleared by the Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA) for six months before appearing in any media.
The judgment resulted from Glomail breaching an earlier ruling that required it to remove its claims about Bioslim Once A Day. The initial complaint was against the product statement that it "guaranteed results in seven days".
The wording was changed to "lose weight in seven days or your money back". Glomail said the promise was no longer about weight loss, but a money back guarantee. The directorate concluded that a reasonable person would interpret both messages as promising weight loss within a week, and as such was not acceptable.
Following this the messaging was not removed from Glomail's website simultaneously with other media. The marketer argued that it was unable to deal with the issue because it had lost employees.
This argument was rejected because there had been a similar situation with another product, Oxycell, which had been subject to a once off pre-clearance. In its appeal, Glomail argued that the six-month ruling should apply to Bioslim online, since it was the offending product.
The directorate pointed out that Clause 4 states that sanctions are against the advertiser.
It was argued that Glomail was a serial offende, having breached a ruling with Oxycell after volunteering to withdraw the commercial.
The ACA Advisory Services can only review ads if the advertiser has more than one adverse ruling, which is the case in this instance. Members pay R570 for the service; it costs R684 for non-members according to their price structure.
Glomail has been in hot water with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) 11 times over the last two years. It has voluntarily withdrawn six ads since 2007 soon after complaints. Two rulings have been upheld, including this one, and one dismissed. It costs the company R22 800 every time it appeals a directorate decision.
- Fin24.com
