CROOKED LITTLE WORLD –

Jan. 30, 2025 – The Ethical Marketing Campaign for Addiction Treatment (EMCAT) brought to the ASA’s attention concerns about the transparency and clarity in the drug and alcohol rehabilitation referral market. Upon investigating this sector, they unpicked issues in ads that were likely to mislead and could affect particularly vulnerable consumers and their families.

Many of these referral websites gave the impression that they offered rehabilitation services, directly, when this was not the case. The ASA judged that claims such as “we provide professional alcohol and drug addiction treatment” and “our rehabilitation centre”, were likely to lead consumers to wrongly believe they were looking at an ad for a direct treatment provider.

Falsely claiming or implying a marketer is acting for purposes outside of their business is a breach of rule 2.3, so be clear about what you offer directly, and when you are referring consumers to third parties.

CONTINUE@ASA