Healthy Skepticism Library item: 16211

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Speeding ticket for Zavance
Pharmacy Daily 2009 08 04

Full text:

THE makers of Nurofen Zavance have been forced to withdraw their TV advertising campaign after a ruling by the Australian Self Medication Industry that the commercials are misleading.

Reckitt Benckiser has been heavily promoting the Zavance product, including the TV ads which link it with racing cars and claim Zavance works “twice as fast”.

Rival Wyeth Consumer Healthcare, which makes Advil Liquid Capsules, complained to ASMI about the ads, arguing that disclaimers about the ‘twice as fast’ Zavance claim weren’t clear.

RB said there was a voiceover which clarified that Zavance was “absorbed up to twice as fast as standard Nurofen” as well as fine print on the screen, but the ASMI complaints panel said this was “accompanied by the sounds of revving racing car engines.”

ASMI said this was insufficient “to overcome the misleading representation made by the claim that Nurofen works twice as fast as other painkillers.”

A series of print advertisements relating to Zavance were also found to be misleading, according to today’s Financial Review.