An advert seen on Youtube for Wild deodorants is the latest in a wave of health claims related bans by by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), for the implication that traditional deodorants are linked to breast cancer.
The advert, first seen as a pre-roll ad on Youtube on 22 February, featured a woman in a sports bra with visible bruising on her chest, saying: “As a breast cancer thriver I’m prioritising my health and I’ve decided to finally go Wild. I’ve seen so many positive comments about how it’s completely natural”.
Wild argued that “the woman in the ad only stated that she was a breast cancer survivor and did not state anything to the effect that Wild would stop people from getting breast cancer.”
However the Advertising Standards Authority considered the messaging in the advert to suggest that “traditional deodorants” were “harmful”.
The regulator said that it “understood that this suggested link was unproven” and therefore “expected to see evidence to that effect”.
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The advert as it appeared, courtesy ASA.
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Wild said “the advert did not infer that using natural deodorants would stop individuals from developing cancer”, and called the conclusion “a giant leap”.
However the ASA asserted that “While the ad did not explicitly make reference to that misconception” it considered it to have “alluded to it”.
Other adverts that have come under fire include a set of six adverts that claimed to treat conditions including anxiety, as well as others banned for implying that they claimed to treat autism.
With regards to the supplements, the ASA said “ads can’t claim a product can treat human disease unless licensed to do so”.
While the ASA was notified of the Wild advert by a complainant, the supplement adverts were picked up by the regulator’s Active Ad Monitoring System as part of its focus on health related claims.