Katy Perry And Justin Bieber Spot Cream Ad Banned

The advertising watchdog has banned a TV campaign featuring stars including Katy Perry and Justin Bieber promoting a spot cream.

The celebrities appear in a television campaign and on the website of pimple cream Proactiv, along with other US celebrities, providing testimonials for the product.

The Advertising Standards Authority received a complaint that the ads were misleading as the product in the UK was made with different ingredients to the one that was promoted by the American celebrities.

Guthy-Renker, which makes Proactiv, said the celebrities had been sent the UK formulation to use. The company said that the "extremely detailed talent agreements" it held the celebrities to meant that the endorsements were "factually accurate and representative of their honest opinions".

Five of the seven celebrities that appear in the ads submitted signed statements saying that they had received, and used, the UK formulations of the products.

The ASA said the veracity of the testimonials was not being challenged, only whether they were relevant to the Proactiv products available to the UK audience at which the ads were targeted.

The statements said the celebrities had used the UK version of the Proactiv products for "several weeks" during 2008; in two instances during 2009; and in two instances during 2010.

However, the ASA said the TV campaign appeared in 2011 meaning viewers would assume the celebrity continued to benefit from using Proactiv, when in fact they had used it at least a year ago, and in some instances several years ago.

"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," said 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".

(H)