{"id":470013,"date":"2026-05-27T19:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T19:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/470013\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T19:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T19:17:08","slug":"complaints-upheld-against-exaggerated-botox-ads-and-misleading-posts-by-influencer-niamh-de-brun-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/470013\/","title":{"rendered":"Complaints upheld against \u2018exaggerated\u2019 Botox ads and \u2018misleading\u2019 posts by influencer Niamh de Br\u00fan \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Advertising Standards Authority<\/a> (ASA) has upheld complaints against Electric Ireland<\/a>, Marks and Spencer<\/a>, and influencer Niamh de Br\u00fan among others.<\/p>\n

Three complaints were upheld against de Br\u00fan, the wife of Kilkenny hurler TJ Reid. <\/p>\n

The influencer, who has more than 100,000 followers on Instagram<\/a>, shared posts promoting Lidl, Blanchardstown Shopping Centre and clothing brand 4th Arq. In these posts she used the hashtag #A D instead of #AD to signify it was an advert.<\/p>\n

The ASA upheld complaints about these adverts, saying the inclusion of a space between the A and D was \u201can attempt to obscure transparency\u201d and \u201cmisleading, particularly for individuals with dyslexia\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile acknowledging that the post had been amended to remove the space between the letters, the executive noted that the disclosure appeared at the bottom of the post and, as such, it was not immediately apparent that the post constituted a marketing communication,\u201d the ASA said about the posts in question.<\/p>\n

In total the authority\u2019s independent complaints council upheld 23 recent complaints, its latest bulletin shows.<\/p>\n

Orla Twomey, chief executive of the ASA, on Wednesday said the rulings \u201chighlight the importance of transparency and responsibility in all forms of advertising\u201d.<\/p>\n

The ASA upheld 12 complaints as part of an investigation into cosmetic treatment advertising. The authority questioned whether references to Botox in ads by several companies \u2013 including DermaSkulpt, KBM Dental and South William Clinic \u2013 breached a requirement \u201cthat prescription-only medicines may not be advertised to the public\u201d.<\/p>\n

The authority also found that a number of companies \u2013 including Kerry Skin Clinic, Kildare Derma Clinic and Sculpture Clinic \u2013 used \u201cexaggerated\u201d facial expressions in adverts promoting Botox.<\/p>\n

In its report the ASA said it \u201cchallenged whether the facial expressions in the \u2018before\u2019 images were exaggerated and therefore had the potential to mislead about the effect of the treatment\u201d.<\/p>\n

The ASA upheld a complaint against Electric Ireland over an email the company sent to customers. The email featured the subject line: \u201cStay with us on a new discounted rate.\u201d <\/p>\n

The body of the email featured a number of statements including an offer for customers to \u201cstay with us for another year\u201d on \u201ca new discounted rate\u201d.<\/p>\n

The complainant stated that, upon inquiring about their current rate and the new discounted rate, they discovered the latter was actually higher than their existing rate, which they considered misleading. The ASA agreed and upheld the complaint. <\/p>\n

Marks and Spencer was reprimanded over an in-store promotional poster that stated \u201c25% off all beauty*\u201d with a footnote adding: \u201c*Subject to availability. Selected items only. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. Excludes sale and clearance items.\u201d<\/p>\n

The complainant objected to the claim that the reduction applied to \u201call\u201d beauty products when there were exclusions. The ASA agreed, deeming the poster \u201cmisleading\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld complaints against Electric Ireland, Marks and Spencer, and influencer Niamh de…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[83800,72,12421,61,542,60,33160],"class_list":["post-470013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-advertising-standards-authority","tag-business","tag-electric-picnic","tag-ie","tag-instagram","tag-ireland","tag-marks-spencer-ms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470013","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=470013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}