Weekly ASA adjudications, grace periods and blogging

I’m not sure blogging in detail about the weekly ASA adjudications (and informally resolved cases) is the best use of my time for various reasons:

• The ASA and the original complainant are already ‘on the case’ and my time would be better spent seeking out other dubious ads and making fresh complaints.
• Where a complaint has gone to adjudication, the information is already on the ASA website for the world to see.
• Where a case has been informally resolved (unless I am the original complainant), there is so little information given, anything I write is pure speculation.
• The ASA appear to grant advertisers a period of grace in order for them to make the necessary changes to their website. As previously discussed (eg with respect to the Maperton Trust), adjudications (and informal resolutions) seem to be announced before this time is up (and again, if the case has been informally resolved we can only speculate about the details of the original complaint).

Of course, I’ll still be poring over the ASA site every Wednesday and noting any cases of interest. This week’s adjudications include:

• A complaint upheld about MeratolTM, a weight loss product sold by Advanced Health Ltd (t/a Meratol.com). Googling Advanced Health Ltd turns up some interesting material such as separate sites for other slimming products. I’m trying not be sidetracked by this, assuming someone else is out there dealing with this.
• A complaint upheld about a regional press ad for three health & beauty creams which made unsubstantiated claims about efficacy and unauthorised medicinal claims.
• A complaint upheld regarding an ad for a book that claimed to reveal a cure for Alzheimer’s.
• Another complaint upheld against Vitabiotics Ltd. As before, they had used research on a particular group (in this case people who’d been diagnosed with HIV) to make misleading implications about potential benefits of their product to the general public.

The informally resolved cases included Beeston Chiropractic Clinic Ltd, Jackie Reader t/a Solar Health Clinic (more on this later), Jeanette Warren t/a Healing in Stillness, Julie Delaney t/a dropithcguk.co.uk, Lowe and Campbell Publishing Ltd, Moat Osteopaths and Unique Dental Maintenance Services.