It is truly shocking to witness just how low these people will stoop just to make money.
The file (in RTF) can be downloaded HERE
Here is a brief summary
DECISION
Meeting 17 July 2000
Meeting 17 July 2000
Complainant: Te Turanga O Te Mate Kowhai - D Winterbourn
Advertisement: SmithKline Beecham (NZ) Ltd - Twinrix
Complaint: An advertisement for SmithKline Beecham promoting its "Twinrix Vaccine" (the trademark name for a combined hepatitis A and B vaccine) was published in the Pacificwave magazine. The advertisement stated among other things that, "…Hepatitis B is the most infectious of the blood borne viruses and is estimated to be 100 times more infectious than HIV. Its spread through blood, saliva and sexual fluids. Sharing a toothbrush or razor, a game of rugby or something as beautiful as a passionate kiss could lead to infection.
The Complainant said: "As Director of The Hepatitis Foundation, I wish to make a formal complaint about print advertisement promoting Twinrix, which appeared in Pacific Wave March 2000.
Twinrix is a trademark name for a combined hepatitis A and B vaccine, supplied to the New Zealand market by SmithKline Beecham (NZ) Ltd.The basis of the Foundation’s complaint is that the advertisement disregards the ASA’s Codes of Practice, and Advertising Code of Ethics. In particular, point 4 of the Basic Principles, "that all advertisements should be prepared with a due sense of social responsibility to consumers and to society".
Our main argument is that some of the information contained in the advert is medically unproven. The advertisement copy reads:“Hepatitis B is the most infectious of the blood borne viruses and is estimated to be 100 times more infectious than HIV. Its spread through blood, saliva and sexual fluids. Sharing a toothbrush or razor, a game of rugby or something as beautiful as a passionate kiss could lead to infection”.There is no medically proven documentation to prove that hepatitis B can be transmitted from one person to another in this manner. It is true that the virus can be detected in saliva, but cross infection through ‘wet’ kissing, especially among adults, is unproven. I believe this type of advertising plays unnecessarily on peoples’ fears and instills information, which is quite simply, untrue and without clinical proof. Perhaps Twinrix’s manufacturers are promoting this vaccine, on the wave of interest caused by the Foundation’s current government-funded hepatitis B screening programme.
Consumers look to these organisations as bastions of ethical self-regulation in terms of
information supplied for the public good.
I believe, Twinrix’s suppliers have overstepped the codes of common good and decency.
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AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD HERE
PAPERBACK COMING SOON
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