The advert which caught the ASA’s consideration was a TikTok publish by @mancavebartender on the finish 2023, that includes a bartender mixing a drink. He pulled out two sachets of Hangcure Rebound and took two drugs as on display screen textual content learn: “NO NEED FOR CRAZY REMEDIES ANYMORE”.
The subsequent caption learn: “Making The Final Hangover remedy cocktail… take 2 earlier than and a couple of after ingesting #hangcure #hangcurerebound #ultimatehangovercure #tiktokshop #hangover #hangoverremedies”.
The UK Code of Non-broadcast Promoting and Direct & Promotional Advertising (CAP Code) prohibits claims that state or indicate a meals or drink may stop, deal with or remedy human illness. This additionally applies to product or model names.
On this case, the ASA thought-about {that a} hangover and its related signs, comparable to nausea, dehydration, headache, vomiting and abdomen upset, have been hostile medical situations, and as such, claims which acknowledged or implied {that a} meals or drink may stop, deal with or remedy a hangover have been prohibited underneath this rule.
Simply an acronym
Hangcure Ltd, which sells merchandise together with electrolyte drink mixes, capsules and detox teas, responded to the ASA stating that it’s dedicated to being compliant with promoting regulation and had taken corrective motion.
The corporate contacted the creator of the video and confirmed that the video was eliminated. It additionally eliminated the product from internet online affiliate marketing on TikTok Store as a result of it ws unable to manage the claims made by associates, to make sure that related incidents didn’t occur in future.
Hangcure stated that it understood that it couldn’t declare to remedy or deal with hangovers, explaining that this was an affiliate publish on TikTok and never posted on the corporate’s personal web page—including that it was unaware of the publish till notified of the criticism.
Concerning the title Hangcure, they stated that this was a model title, not a product title, and was derived from the acronyms of the corporate’s values: honesty, authenticity, continuous enchancment, development, neighborhood, understanding, reliability and moral.
The Rebound capsules include the lively components N Acetyl Cysteine (NAC), rosemary leaf extract, magnesium citrate and B nutritional vitamins.
The ASA additional assessed the model and product title and thought of that the phrase Hangcure can be understood by customers to be a shorthand for “hangover remedy” and would subsequently be understood as a declare. It confirmed the product and model names have been subsequently a declare to stop, deal with or remedy hangovers, which is prohibited by the Code.
