Watchdog bans Nivea Visage Anti-Wrinkle's 'feel younger' ad

By Mark Banham, campaignlive.co.uk, Wednesday, 10 November 2010 12:01AM

A Beiersdorf UK ad that claimed one its Nivea Visage Anti-Wrinkle products made a large percentage of women feel younger has been banned by the advertising watchdog.

Nivea: ASA raps ad

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a complaint about the cinema ad for the face cream in its adjudications today.

A voice-over stated, "Nivea Visage Anti-Wrinkle Q10 Plus helps reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles." A large group of the woman's friends were then shown arriving and surprising her with a birthday cake.

The voice-over continued "So it's no surprise that 37% of women feel more attractive now than they did 10 years ago," with superimposed text stating that "37% of 12,267 women interviewed" agreed.

Text in the centre of the screen then stated "37% of women feel more attractive now than they did 10 years ago". The ad ended with a product shot accompanied by on-screen text that stated "Feel Closer".

A single complainant challenged whether the ad was misleading, because it did not make clear whether the claim "37% of women feel more attractive now than they did 10 years ago" related to a survey of women generally or to those who had used the advertised product.

In response, Beiersdorf UK said the claim "37% of women feel more attractive now than they did 10 years ago" was taken from a survey conducted on attitudes and philosophies to life. They said the women who contributed their views were all subscribers to the Nivea e-mail newsletter, which they had opted into on the product's website.

However, although 95% of the respondents were Nivea users, they could not say how many used the advertised product specifically.

The ASA ruled that the ad presented the relationship between the advertised product and the survey results in a way that was ambiguous, and could be confusing for consumers, and we therefore concluded that the ad was misleading.

The ad, therefore, breached CAP Code non-broadcast regulations on truthfulness and must not appear again in its current form.

This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk