Hyped up headlines about a misleading bottle ad don’t really tell the full story. Here’s what parents need to know…
Today it was reported that an ad for a baby feeding bottle - which said it was “clinically proven to reduce colic and help settle your baby” - had been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for being misleading.
The Press Association reported that the ASA banned the ad for the Philips Avent Feeding Bottle because it seemed to make a general claim about reducing colic and settling babies that they “considered would be understood by consumers to refer to babies of all ages", when the clinical studies were in relation to babies at 2 weeks of age.
We got in touch with a spokesperson for Philips Avent, who explained that the current advertisement for the new Philips Avent Feeding Bottle is fine. It’s just a one-off advertorial that appeared in the July/August issue of Boots Health & Beauty magazine that received a complaint, and which has been banned. The ASA concluded that the ad didn’t make it clear that the clinical studies involved 2-week-old babies. However, the actual clinical trial and findings aren’t in question. The spokesperson assured us it wouldn’t appear again, adding, “We would never want to confuse or mislead our consumers.”
