ASA bans Katy Perry and Justin Bieber Proactiv ads

British Katycats and Beliebers, bad news: your favourite pop singers’ ads for the anti-spot treatment Proactiv have been banned in the UK by those pesky folks at the Advertising Standards Authority.

We were literally talking about the ASA yesterday when we mentioned that Lady Gaga’s ‘Fame’ perfume ad would probably get banned or at least censored to a more PG version, but we didn’t see this coming.

The watchdog reportedly received a complaint (we’re curious to know whether it was just one!) claiming that the ads were misleading, as the UK version of the treatment has a different active ingredient to that of the US.

“We considered the overall impression of the ads was that the celebrities were continued and regular users of Proactiv and noted the same endorsement claims were included on the US Proactiv website,” reads a statement from the ASA.

“We noted the signed statements, which related to only five of the seven testimonials, said the celebrities had each used the UK formulation of the product for a period of only several weeks, between one and three years before the ads appeared. We noted the ads were targeted at a UK audience and that the UK Proactiv products had a different active ingredient to the US version. In that context, we therefore considered the claims of continued use had not been substantiated. We concluded that the ads were misleading. The ads must not appear again in their current form. We told Gunthy-Renker UK to ensure endorsements and testimonials in future ads related to the product being advertised.”

Hm… do you agree or disagree with the ASA on this one?

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