{"id":199463,"date":"2025-12-19T03:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T03:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/199463\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T03:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T03:29:07","slug":"ivf-centre-receives-advertising-complaint-for-claims-of-20000-babies-born-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/199463\/","title":{"rendered":"IVF centre receives advertising complaint for claims of \u201820,000 babies born\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

An IVF<\/a> centre that opened in 2021 but advertised itself as operating in Ireland for 40 years was among several businesses to recently fall foul of Ireland\u2019s advertising watchdog. <\/p>\n

First IVF attracted complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority<\/a> over claims about \u201coutstanding success rates\u201d with \u201cover 20,000 babies born and counting\u201d. A video on its social media page described the clinic\u2019s journey in offering IVF in Ireland \u201csince 1986\u201d.<\/p>\n

IVF (in vitro fertilisation) is a type of treatment to help people have a baby. <\/p>\n

One complainant said the claim that First IVF was responsible for \u201c20,000 babies and counting\u201d was highly improbable given it had only been operational since 2021. Another objected to the advertised claim that First IVF had been \u201chere for nearly 40 years\u201d. <\/p>\n

The advertiser said the statement \u201c20,000 babies and counting\u201d was never intended to suggest that First IVF alone was responsible for that number. <\/p>\n

Rather, it said, it referred to the cumulative history of IVF in Clane, Co Kildare, since 1986, when its founder introduced IVF to Ireland and performed the treatment that resulted in the birth of the first Irish IVF child. <\/p>\n

The council upheld the complaints and said it \u201cconsidered that the impression created by the advertising was that the number of babies born was attributable to the advertisers and … this was not the case\u201d.<\/p>\n

BetLabel, the online gambling platform, attracted multiple complaints regarding concerns over a series of animated videos on YouTube and an ad with a tag line: \u201cLuck of the Irish? Nah, it\u2019s all skill here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some complainants believed the ads could be of particular interest to children, while others felt the \u201cluck of the Irish\u201d catchline implied gambling could be influenced by skill when it is based on chance.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Watchdog upholds complaint against \u2018tongue-in-cheek\u2019 Buckfast advert written by AIOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

No response was received from the advertiser and all complaints were upheld.<\/p>\n

Another complaint made in connection with an in-store Domino\u2019s<\/a> promotion offering free pizzas to those who scanned a QR code was also upheld on the basis it was only available to students, with that \u201celigibility criteria omitted from the advertisement\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cProtecting consumers from advertising that is misleading, harmful, or offensive lies at the heart of the ASA\u2019s work,\u201d said its chief executive Orla Twomey. \u201cWe are committed to strengthening accountability and compliance with the code across the Irish advertising industry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An IVF centre that opened in 2021 but advertised itself as operating in Ireland for 40 years was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[83800,72,30476,105780,61,96391,60,9386],"class_list":{"0":"post-199463","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-advertising-standards-authority","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-dacia","11":"tag-domino-s-pizza","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-in-vitro-fertilisation-ivf","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-pregnancy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}