Misleading homeopathy marketing (again) - complaint submitted to Advertising Standards Authority

I'm grateful to 'BrownBagPantry' the prolific tweeter of homeopathy-related matters. Her screenshot of Alan's (zeno001) tweet alerted me to a problem with the claims made by Highgate Holistic Clinic in a tweet and on their website. I would have missed his tweet on the #homeopathy tag as Alan hadn't tagged it, so my thanks to BrownBagPantry for being solely responsible for bringing it to my attention and causing me to submit a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about the clinic's misleading advertising. Had I been looking at the tag on Christmas Day I might well have seen the clinic's own tweet (as they did hashtag it) but I wasn't, so all credit to BrownBagPantry.

Normally if I'd spotted one of Alan's tweets about a misleading advert I'd have DMed him asking if he'd reported it and he might reply that he had, or that someone else had already done so, or that he was perhaps waiting until after the holidays before tackling it etc. However that's not going to happen today as I'm just going to get on with the complaint and add the text here here.

I've taken screenshots of the tweet and parts of the website to share with the ASA though I hadn't planned to add them here.

Background research
Highgate Holistic Clinic's website claims that the homeopath is a registered member of the Society of Homeopaths however double-checking on the 'Find a Homeopath' site indicates that she's a member of the Alliance of Registered Homeopaths, but doesn't mention SoH membership. As a courtesy I'll let the SoH know about this in case she isn't and the info is incorrect.

Text of my complaint to the ASA
Note - the online form doesn't permit hyperlinks (where the link is behind a word) so the link was pasted in full in a list at the end with a number in brackets next to the relevant part of my text, eg [1]. It also doesn't permit bold or italic so the text has been slightly reformatted for clarity here. The text of a complaint must also be less than 5,000 characters (I had about 1,800 to spare).

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I'm complaining about a tweet from a clinic, the text of which implies that homeopathy can cure conditions, and the content of two pages from the clinic's website.

The tweet
"#Homeopathy is based on the principle of ‘like cures like’. In other words, a substance taken in small amounts will cure the same symptoms it causes if taken in large amounts." - it is not possible for homeopathy to cure any symptoms so the text of this tweet is misleading.

The tweet links to a page on the clinic's website, which says
"Danielle Abramov is committed to homeopathy as it treats the person as a whole without the side effects of conventional medicine" - I think this statement may discourage people from visiting a doctor or from taking real medicine. It implies that medicine offers only side effects.

"...working with them towards improving their health naturally – offering a real alternative to or support for conventional treatment." - this implies that homeopathy is an alternative to conventional treatment, and also implies that it is a 'real' alternative. It isn't. I've no objection to 'support for conventional treatment' though.

"In India homeopathy is considered to be equal to allopathic medicine." - this is largely untrue but what is relevant here is the implication that homeopathy should be considered as some sort of real thing, implying that it can help people.

"Danielle Abramov is also a qualified Vega practitioner. The Vega machine is a non-invasive, painless, diagnostic tool for determining some of the causes of ill health, be it persistent viral, fungal or bacterial overload, vitamin or mineral deficiency, food intolerance or emotional blocks." - the Vega machine is not a valid diagnostic tool and you have previously noted that it is "not capable of diagnosing [respiratory allergy and sensitisation to common aero-allergens]", I do not believe it is capable of diagnosing viral, fungal or bacterial overload either. Also a lay homeopath [one who is not also a doctor or other healthcare professional] is unlikely to be competent to diagnose any health conditions (using this or any other 'diagnostic' tool).

The website also has a page on therapies that includes a section on homeopathy
The section on homeopathy says that it "... can help with many issues such as Asthma, Anxiety, Allergies, Bronchitis, Childhood Diseases

Coughs, Colds and Sore Throats, Depression, Digestive Disorders, Earache, Eczema, Exhaustion, Emotional issues, Fibroids, Grief, Headaches & Migraines, Menopause, Menstrual Complaints & Infertility, Pregnancy & Birth, Sleep Problems, Thyroid Imbalances, Urinary Disorders, Vaccination Side-Effects, Varicose Veins etc." - none of these can be helped by homeopathy, some are serious medical conditions that need appropriately qualified medical care and support. I also do not believe that homeopaths or clinics are allowed to list named conditions.

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What happens next?
Several years ago the ASA changed the way it handled homeopathy-related complaints. Rather than asking homeopaths to provide evidence for particular claims the ASA took a more holistic view and, recognising that homeopathy doesn't work for any condition, determined that any homeopathy claim was misleading and that there was no need to undertake an investigation for each complaint submitted. Instead, each complaint is handled as a case of non-compliance by the Compliance Team - so my complaint will be handled by them and I won't know the outcome (only adjudications are published).

On the inability to accept praise - advice to businesses

I was writing this on the ferry home and thinking about customer service, complaints and feedback. I've no complaints about Thames Clippers' ferry service or customer service although I have previously pointed out that their marketing emails have been a bit bizarre although they've recently got miles better.

This is a wider point on organisations expecting complaints (fair enough, they are usually more time-sensitive than pleasant comments and need to be handled) but not really having any kind of mechanism in place to handle compliments, or seemingly even the expectation of receiving any. 

I shall illustrate this with two anecdotes that have become immortalised in my family as mildly amusing tales that we retell each other every so often.

1. Wha's rang noo?
My mum had a lovely lunchtime meal in a cafe in Glasgow while visiting family. At the end of the meal the waitress asked her if she'd enjoyed the meal.* Mum said she had and that she was having a lovely nostalgic time (she grew up in Scotland) and she'd like to pass on her compliments to the manager if possible.

At this point in the retelling we'd all start giggling (cos we knew what came next). The waitress, with my mum in earshot, popped behind a panel to tell the manager that "there's a lady who wants to speak to you" to which the manager replied, sighing, "wha's rang noo?" (what's wrong now?) which my mum found amusing, and rather telling.

2. Um... yes, I'll just put you through to the complaints department.
My dad's car was a bit overcaffeinated in that it seemed to run more on battery power than petrol and it kept 'not working'.  I don't know what was wrong with it (I never learned to drive) but the battery appeared to ambiently discharge itself overnight even though nothing had been left switched on. 

Eventually my dad called the RAC and someone turned up promptly, swapped some bits and bobs around (I like to think there was some dramatic soldering involved but probably not) and within an hour dad's car worked again and the engineer was on his way.

Dad was very pleased and rang the RAC again to say thanks for a job well done. He asked the receptionist who he could talk to to pass on a compliment?

Receptionist: "...?...?..." 

Dad: "OK then, some feedback?"

Receptionist: "I'll put you through to the complaints department" 

Dad: "But it's not a complaint, the service was prompt and efficient and the car's working." 

Receptionist: "Um... yes, I'll just put you through to the complaints department." 

So dad explained to the complaints department that he'd had a nice experience and wanted to pass this on to someone. This apparently threw them...

Having feedback framed only in terms of complaints seems odd, no? Of course all organisations need to have a way of handling complaints - these can be warning flags that something is not well and needs prompt fixing or possibly damage limitation - but how do organisations handle positive feedback? And how are they seen to handle positive feedback, within and outside the organisation? Is it shared (systematically I mean, not just "oh look we got this nice email from someone") but added to some sort of potentially searchable database (in the same way that complaint histories might be recorded, because they required an exchange of correspondence or an official response) available to all staff and actively shared with them?

Incidentally if people type "complaint" into your organisation's website search are they taken to a page that says "complaints" or "feedback"?

*I'm not sure if this was the same waitress who once asked my mum "could yiz have went mair?" (could you have had more?) at the end of a meal but our pool of family anecdotes definitely suffers from some cross-contamination.