Ad watchdog rules against Optical Express

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled against a September 19 2011 Optical Express television ad for laser eye surgery which stated that 'over 99 per cent of patients achieve 20/20 vision or better'.

A complainant questioned whether the claim could be substantiated.

OE responded that the claim should be taken in conjunction with the caption stating '99 per cent of 61,142 treatments' and did not believe it claimed or implied that 99 per cent of all patients treated by it achieved 20/20. The company said this claim and the statement 'more than one million laser surgery eye procedures worldwide' were separate and not related.

Its study of 61,142 treatments included those with prescriptions from 0 to 6D and 0 to 1D of astigmatism. It was aiming for emmetropia and non-presbyopic patients were excluded.

The ASA noted that 99 per cent of patients taking part in the study achieved 20/20 or better, but felt that consumers would believe the '99 per cent of 61,142 treatments' to refer to a representative sample of patients that substantiated the claim. It believed the reference to 'more than one million laser eye surgery patients worldwide' emphasised the impression that the claim referred to all patients.

The ASA considered that, because the study had excluded a number of patient groups, it was not representative of all patients on whom laser eye surgery was carried out at OE.