The Promoting Requirements Authority has reprimanded six beauty remedy suppliers for pressuring clients, exploiting girls’s insecurities or trivialising medical dangers after an investigation into adverts for liquid Brazilian butt lifts (BBLs).
The beauty process, which includes injecting fillers into the buttocks to reinforce their form and measurement, is unregulated within the UK and may carry vital well being dangers, not least from probably life-threatening infections.
A whole lot of girls have contracted infections after paying for liquid BBLs within the UK, with many requiring hospital remedy for sepsis or corrective surgical procedure to restore tissue injury.
The ASA took motion towards the UK firms after its synthetic intelligence-driven monitoring system flagged quite a few Fb and Instagram adverts for liquid BBLs and comparable procedures.
Adverts from Beautyjenics, Bomb Doll Aesthetics, CCSkinLondonDubai, EME Aesthetics & Magnificence Academy, Rejuvenate Academy, buying and selling as Rejuvenate Clinics, and NKD Medical, buying and selling as Dr Ducu, have been discovered to have breached the code and the businesses have been advised the advertisements should not seem once more.
“Selecting to bear a beauty process is a severe choice, so advertisements that trivialise this, exploit insecurities, or strain shoppers could cause actual hurt. We’re significantly involved about a majority of these advertisements for liquid BBLs, given the process is presently unregulated and is understood to be excessive danger,” an ASA spokesperson mentioned.
The adverts risked pressuring shoppers into reserving procedures, the ASA discovered, by referring to Black Friday provides or different time-limited offers. Some created unrealistic expectations or exploited girls’s insecurities, with phrases akin to “get that excellent peachy look!” and “really feel assured each step of the way in which!” Others trivialised the dangers of the process, the ASA dominated.
Solely three firms responded to the ASA’s enquiries. EME Aesthetics disagreed that its advert put strain on clients or trivialised the dangers of liquid BBLs. NKD Medical mentioned it aimed to speak the advantages of its remedies with out trivialising the dangers. Rejuvenate Academy eliminated all references to time-limited provides and mentioned its advertisements would clarify the procedures have been carried out by a medical skilled to minimise the dangers.
NKD Medical advised the Guardian its clinic was registered with the Care High quality Fee and that each one its procedures have been carried out by certified docs. It mentioned its DBL process, standing for “doctor-based elevate” was “basically totally different from a standard liquid BBL” and was “developed with affected person security and medical integrity at its core”. The firm’s web site describes the DBL as a “double butt elevate” that includes injecting fillers into the buttocks.
Save Face, a UK register of accredited beauty practitioners, has campaigned since 2023 to get liquid BBLs banned. Alice Webb, 33, died in September 2024 after having a liquid BBL carried out by an unqualified practitioner.
“I’m happy to see the ASA performing towards the irresponsible promoting of liquid BBLs,” mentioned Ashton Collins, a director at Save Face. “These procedures are marketed on-line as risk-free, painless, and cheap alternate options to surgical procedure, however these claims are dangerously deceptive. We now have supported over 750 girls who underwent liquid BBLs. Over 55% suffered from sepsis, and greater than 40% required corrective surgical procedure.”
The ASA mentioned it anticipated advertisers to “train a excessive degree of warning” when selling procedures that carry vital dangers and presently lack formal regulation. “As we speak’s rulings ship a transparent message,” the spokesperson mentioned.
The Joint Council for Beauty Practitioners (JCCP) welcomed the ASA ruling. “We urge anybody contemplating any beauty process to train warning when responding to social media promoting, significantly when the process being promoted is a high-risk surgical one such because the BBL,” mentioned Andrew Rankin, a JCCP trustee.
“A official social media promotion ought to hyperlink to a devoted net web page which gives enough details about the process, and who can be performing it, to make an knowledgeable choice concerning the preliminary enquiry for session. The BBL in any kind, together with ‘liquid’ BBL, ought to solely be carried out by an appropriately certified surgeon or physician inside a CQC registered facility.”
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