Advertisment
Email advertising for Inish Pharmacy referred to the following:
“Honilac Advanced Goat Milk. Infant Formula Stage 1 800g.
Buy One €17.99
Buy Two + €15.99”
The text was accompanied by an image of the product.
Complaint
The complainant said that advertising a multibuy promotion for 0-to-6-month stage 1 infant formula was contrary to infant formula advertising guidelines and rules and should not be promoted in this way.
Response
The advertisers said that the tiered pricing promotion had been applied to the stage one infant formula in error. The pricing structure of €17.99 for one tin and €15.99 for more than one tin was the result of an oversight on their part and they apologised for the error which had occurred.
The advertisers confirmed that all relevant staff had been made aware of the error which had occurred and confirmed that the advertising had been removed and would not be active again in the future.
Conclusion
Complaint upheld.
The Complaints Committee considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers’ response and the actions taken by them.
The Committee noted the Code requirement that “marketing communications for infant formula are prohibited unless they appear in scientific publications, or are for the purpose of trade before the retail stage, or are a publication for which the intended readers are not the general public” (8.31). They considered that the material which had been sent by email was a marketing communication to the general public and was therefore in breach of Section 8.31 of the Code.
ACTION REQUIRED:
As the advertising had been withdrawn no further action was required in this case.
