False energy boosting claims? Dextro Energy advert deemed misleading by UK advertising watchdog

15 Feb 2019 --- The UK’s advertising watchdog, Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), has ruled that a recent advertisement for Dextro Energy Glucose Tablets wrongly implies that the product has energy boosting capabilities and exaggerates the product’s vitamin C content. An energy boosting claim would need to be authorized on the EU Register of nutrition and health claims made on foods to be allowed.

Energy and alertness claims are proving popular with concentration-seeking consumers. Innova Market Insights data show that such categories have been growing over the past five years, with new product launches between 2013 and 2018 with an energy and alertness claim increasing by 19 percent.

The issue arose when a poster for the tablets, seen on the London Underground network starting 17 May 2018, featured the text “LIFE'S HARD,” followed by a large upward arrow with “CHEAT!” written inside. Further text stated “FEEL THE BURST - OF FLAVOUR” around a packshot with “DEXTRO ENERGY” in an upward arrow alongside the words “fast” and “direct,” which appeared in lines denoting speed, and text which stated “orange + vitamin C.” Small text at the bottom of the poster stated: “Vitamin C can contribute to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue.”

In response, Dextro said that it had sought advice from the CAP Copy Advice team about the advert under investigation, to the effect that the ad was likely to comply with the Advertising Code. The company noted that the word “boost” did not appear in the advert and did not believe that it was a synonym of “burst,” a term which was used in the advert. Also, the word “energy” was part of the product name, “Dextro Energy,” which was a registered trademark and apart from the product name, the text of the advert did not mention energy.

The text was made up of three components which the company believed would most likely be read as a dialogue: “Life’s hard” – “Cheat!” – “Feel the burst of flavour”. By expressly mentioning “flavour,” which was depicted in the same typeset as the words “Feel the burst” and connected by three dots on either side of the product image, they believed the “burst” would be clearly understood to relate to flavor and not energy.

Dextro further pointed out that the product contained vitamin C in sufficient quantities to use the authorized health claim “Vitamin C can contribute to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue,” which was included at the bottom of the advert.

It was, therefore, understood by Dextro that even if the advert was thought to contain an implied health message, that could only be a general, non-specific claim that the food provided a benefit for overall good health or health-related well-being.

Ruling upheld
However, the ASA upheld its ruling against the advert.

The ASA accepted that, where a product name (in this case, “Dextro Energy”) may be construed as a health or nutrition claim, it may be used in advertising if it was trademarked before 1 January 2005 without being accompanied by an authorized health or permitted nutrition claim.

Nevertheless, this did not mean that, when that product name was placed in combination with other claims and imagery, it was permissible for the overall message of an ad to constitute a health claim which inaccurately reworded or exaggerated an authorized health claim.This included the reference to vitamin C.

“The ad contained the claim ‘Vitamin C can contribute to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue.’ We considered the claim had the same meaning as the authorized health claim for sources of Vitamin C on the register, We understood Dextro Energy tablets were a source of vitamin C and considered that, as a specific health claim for a source of vitamin C listed as authorized on the register, Dextro were entitled to use it,” the ASA says in a statement.

However, it notes that in light of the implications of the advert, the vitamin C portion of the advert was “a re-wording of the specific health claim and exaggerated the authorised claim.”

While the ASA accepted that the advert referred explicitly to “flavour,” there was no obvious connection between “flavour” and the statements “Life’s hard” or “Cheat!”

It was decided that by inserting the packshot which prominently featured the product name “DEXTRO ENERGY” into the middle of the sentence that began “FEEL THE BURST,” and presenting it alongside the arrow, the advert implied that the product provided an immediate increase in energy levels.

“We considered the implications of the ad, as discussed above, were that the product provided an immediate increase in energy levels. We considered that this was a re-wording of the specific health claim and exaggerated the authorized claim. We, therefore, concluded that the ad breached the Code,” the statement continues.

Earlier this year, energy drink brand Red Bull also came under heat for its advert on the London Underground. The ASA banned a poster by Red Bull for reportedly implying that the drink has a beneficial impact on health, and in particular, focus and concentration. 

Last summer, a television advertisement for Heinz Beanz was banned by ASA after a complainant challenged whether the advert included a nutrition claim, regarding protein, which complied with the UK’s advertising codes. It was the second time the advert had been banned after it had been edited following a previous ASA decision.