An Instagram post by Gemma Collins in which she promoted wearing a headset to fight depression instead of seeking professional medical advice and treatment has been banned by the UK advertising watchdog.
The TV personality posted a video wearing a Flow Neuroscience AB device, a £400 headset that sends mild electrical impulses to the frontal cortex of the brain responsible for regulating mood.
“Flow actually works faster and better than antidepressants,” said Collins in the video, which was posted in May 2023. “It’s like having your own therapist in the comfort of your own home. You’re fully in control of your own treatment.”
The UK advertising code states that marketing must not “discourage essential treatment for which medical supervision should be sought”.
While Collins maintained that she had stopped taking antidepressants before starting to use the device, the Advertising Standards Authority considered her statement a strong endorsement that it was a favourable alternative to medication. The ASA said Collins was encouraging bypassing medical supervision, both in getting hold of the device, and in its use.
Collins told the regulator that she believed the ad had sent a very clear message with a text caption stating “consult your GP always without fail”. However, the ASA said that telling people to “consult their GP” only encouraged a preliminary consultation. This did not meet the requirement that treatment for depression must be conducted with “ongoing supervision”.
“The implication was that people who started to use the device would be able to stop their medication shortly after and without medical supervision,” said the ASA. “We considered that the ad trivialised the decision to come off antidepressants or not take them at all and encouraged people to take their treatment into their own hands.”
Collins is a former car salesperson who came to prominence in the reality soap opera The Only Way is Essex and is now a TV personality and podcaster.
Separately, the UK watchdog banned an advert by Virgin Atlantic for making a misleading claim about using “100% sustainable aviation fuel”. The airline ran the radio ad promoting the first transatlantic flight to be powered solely by aviation fuels made from sustainable sources.
The ASA, which has banned a string of adverts by airlines in a crackdown on “greenwashing” claims, said that the ad gave listeners a “misleading impression of the fuel’s environmental impact”.
“It’s important that claims for sustainable aviation fuel spell out what the reality is so consumers aren’t misled into thinking that the flight they are taking is greener than it really is,” said Miles Lockwood, director of complaints and investigation at the ASA.
“Claiming that a product or service is sustainable creates an impression that it is not causing harm to the environment and for that reason we expect to see robust evidence that this is the case.”
It is the first time the ASA has banned an ad because of claims regarding sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), which airlines are relying on being developed to enable the industry to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and Childline on 0800 1111. In the US, call or text Mental Health America at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978
