The Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) has ordered Johnson & Johnson to remove or amend claims from its commercial that its Sinutab product are the “Number 1 decongestant spray” in SA, reports News24.
This after the board found that the claim – based on sales figures and internal analysis from 2023 – was unsupported and based solely on the sale of its 10ml spray product.
The ruling was made after a complaint was laid by manufacturer Procter & Gamble, which argued that its Iliadin nasal spray had sold more products between October 2023 and September 2024, based on sales data. The company also said it had attempted to resolve the dispute with J&J, but was unsuccessful.
In the ruling, the ARB found that the claim made by J&J in the commercial was too broad. This is because while single product or unit sales for the Sinutab 10ml spray surpassed Iliadin, the sales for all Iliadin-branded products were higher than Sinutab-branded products.
“The directorate is of the opinion that the hypothetical reasonable consumer would understand the claim to mean that Sinutab Nasal Spray is the market leader in the nasal spray category. The commercial does not say, ‘Sinutab 10ml is the bestselling nasal spray’, which appears to be the advantage they rely on. It does not even visibly feature the 10ml product.”
It ruled that the commercial had violated sections of the advertising code stating that ads needed to provide up-to-date and market relevant information, supported by credible evidence, and accurate information confirmed by SA’s accredited market researchers.
Meanwhile, the ARB also ruled that the disclaimer on the commercial, which showed the source of the sales data, could not be read clearly by viewers and was not on-screen for long enough.
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News24 article – J&J must drop ‘number 1’ nasal spray claim in SA based on data whiff
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