Advertising prescription-only medicines (POMs) is prohibited to the general public in the UK.1 However, this isn’t stopping some clinics from bending the rules. In recent rulings by the UK’s advertising watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), three medical aesthetic clinics and a beauty salon have been told to remove promotion of the hay fever injection, Kenalog, on their social media accounts for their summer campaigns.2-5 The ads all appeared on Instagram, with captions including: ‘If you love spring or summer but hate the hay fever symptoms that the seasons bring, you might want to consider an annual Kenalog injection’ as well as ‘I now have Kenalog injections at £40 per shot’.
The ASA ruled that the ads breached the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) Code 12.12 regarding medicines, medical devices, health-related products and beauty products.6 As a result, the ASA…
