Six ads have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for selling prescription-only weight loss drugs direct to the public. Some of the online pharmacies – Simple Online, The Care Pharmacy, Juniper, MedExpress, Menwell and Pharmacyonline – are repeat offenders.
Only a year ago the ASA felt compelled to issue a special guidelines statement after it banned nine such ads in one week, but it doesn’t look to have dampened down the frenzy. Using brand names is against the rules, and so are less specific phrases like “weight loss injection,” “weight loss pen” and “obesity treatment jab.”
A countrywide bus side ad from online platform Voy (bottom) announces “the weight is over” with a picture of a hand holding a pill. The reference is clearly to the new GLP-1 tablets, recently cleared for use in the UK, and has offended plenty of people on social media but doesn’t even appear in the ASA’s catalogue of transgressors – maybe it doesn’t even break the rules.
But these companies are working around loopholes and have even made their way into cinemas by using stealth tactics. Novo Nordisk, which makes Ozempic, has a campaign urging us to “make life gains” by talking about health improvements and active living when it’s really selling weight loss drugs. Others are talking about “weight management consultation services” or “medicated weight loss programmes,” which barely disguise the products they are peddling.
When weight loss drugs are in the news every day and are affecting so many aspects of society and culture – from a return to skinny to a downturn in food sales – it seems inevitable that the ASA is fighting a losing battle.
