Don’t botch it up! Cosmetic surgery ads targeting under 18s are banned

The regulations around adverts promoting cosmetic surgery to teenagers and young adults have come a long way since 2018, when an ad for breast enlargement at a cosmetic surgery clinic was shown during the ad break for Love Island. The ad for MYA had a voiceover saying “these girls had breast enlargements with MYA and all feel amazing”. The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) agreed with complaints, including one from the Mental Health Foundation, and banned the ad. They said this ad presented women who had breast enlargement procedures in a positive light, and said it implied that the women were only happy with their bodies because they had undergone surgery.

Following this, the ASA toughened their approach to ads aimed at under 18s and in November 2021 CAP and BCAP announced that “because of the inherent risks of cosmetic intervention procedures, and the potential appeal of these services to young people struggling with body confidence issues, it's important we set the bar necessarily high in terms of marketing" (Shahriar Coupal, CAP director). The ban now in effect, means that companies can no longer advertise procedures such as breast enhancements, nose jobs, dermal fillers, skin rejuvenation treatments, chemical peels, laser or light treatments and teeth whitening products to under-18s across social media, ads during TV breaks, or any other media that will appeal to under-18s.

It is already illegal to perform cosmetic procedures on under-18s, but there has never been a restriction on their advertisement.

The new targeting restrictions essentially require that:

• ads for cosmetic interventions must not appear in non-broadcast media directed at under-18s;
• ads for cosmetic interventions must not appear in other non-broadcast media where under-18s make up over 25% of the audience; and
• broadcast ads for cosmetic interventions must not appear during or adjacent to programmes commissioned for, principally directed at or likely to appeal particularly to under-18s.

Both CAP and BCAP will carry out a 12 month post-implementation review to check how the new rules are functioning and that they are having the envisioned intentions. They have published updated Guidance on the marketing of surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures to reflect the new restrictions (CAP Code rule 12.25 and BCAP Code rule 32.2.9).

With the new regulations coming into force just a few weeks before the next season of Love Island kicks off, influencers and contestants will likely have higher scrutiny on their social media posts. Earlier this year, the ASA named and shamed ex-Love Island contestants including Gabby Allen, Anna Vakili and Belle Hassan for not clearly labelling their posts as ads (please see our article here for more information), with the ASA uploading sponsored ads to warn consumers. The ASA have also got a ‘Cheatsheet’ for Love Island contestants, which covers some of their rules for advertising responsibly on social media, highlighting how seriously the ASA are cracking down on influencer marketing.