A new advertising campaign for a diet retreat offered by Tesco has been banned by ASA.

The Guardian’s marketing news section reports that a promotional campaign for Tesco’s Diet Weight Loss Retreats – a weekend residential programme – has been banned for targeting obese people in an “inappropriate manner”.

Tesco’s promotional leaflet was taken to task by the Advertising Standards Authority for printing claims of an “average 2 inches off waist size” and “average weight loss of 4.5 pounds”. A member of the public also registered a complaint over testimonies from two people found within the leaflet, “Deane” and “Karl” who said they had lost 4.5 and 3.5 stone respectively thanks to the programme.

ASA said that the testimonial content was inappropriate because no time frame was given for the Deane or Karl’s weightloss. In their ruling, ASA said “Because we understood that obesity required medical intervention and because the ad did not provide any information about the time in which Deane and Karl had lost their weight, we considered that the advertisers had acted irresponsibly.”

ASA also said that the leaflet was in breach of the advertising code because the claim of an “average 2 inches off waist size” broke rules regarding weight or fat loss claims. The code rules that it is “unacceptable” to claim that fat can be lost from specific parts of the body.

Tesco has disputed ASAs ruling on this issue though. They say that these claims were based on the average results from people who had previously participated in the retreats.

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