Hair loss reversal adverts starring Shane Warne banned
Advertisements featuring the cricket legends Shane Warne and Graham Gooch which claimed to reverse hair loss have been banned by a watchdog for being misleading
Nov 2009
The advert stated 'Hair worries are out!' alongside a picture of Warne, with the spin bowler stating: "'I stopped worrying about my hair when I heeded the Warne-ing signs and saw Advanced Hair Studio."
It promises readers laser therapy technology and "strand by strand" replacement procedures to treat thinning hair.
A series of four pictures also showed Gooch's scalp, before and after strand by strand treatment.
But a reader questioned whether the treatment could really cause hair to re-grow or stop hair loss and asked whether claims the laser therapy had received clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration [FDA] were misleading.
Advanced Hair Studio (AHS) argued that the adverts offered two solutions to hair loss and said it had not meant to imply that the laser treatment reversed hair loss, but provided a cosmetic improvement.
The strand by strand treatment did result in a fuller head of hair and AHS had also consulted the Committee of Advertising Practice in advance of publishing the ad, it said.
However, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld two of the claims against the firm and warned that the adverts should not appear again.
They implied an effect which was more than simply cosmetic and as such were misleading, said the watchdog.
A spokesman said: ""The ad stated 'AHS-FP includes Laser Therapy technology recently approved by the FDA'.
"We considered that readers would infer that a treatment involving laser therapy, particularly a therapy 'approved' by an official-sounding organisation like the FDA, was likely to produce a physiological, rather than just a cosmetic, effect.
"We understood that the second treatment quoted in the ad, Strand-by-Strand, was a hair replacement procedure and noted the ad showed a series of photos of the cricketer Graham Gooch, each depicting him with a greater coverage of hair.
"Text stated 'The Advanced Hair and Scalp Fitness Program includes Laser Therapy technology ... Alternatively patented STRAND-BY-STRAND procedures can provide most with a guaranteed full and natural looking head of hair again.'
"Because of the use of 'Alternatively', readers could infer that AHS-FP addressed similar "worries" and achieved similar, if not identical, results. The ad must not appear again in its current form."
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