Dragons' Den-backed 'skinny' fake tan misled customers, watchdog rules

Louise Ferguson and Kate Cotton featured on Dragons' Den
Martin Coulter20 October 2017

A fake tan firm which launched after featuring on BBC show Dragons' Den misled customers, a business watchdog has ruled.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said claims by Skinny Tan that their product could "tone" or give "less visible cellulite" were baseless.

Claims that the product was "100 per cent natural" were also deemed misleading. As a result, the company's adverts have been withdrawn and must be altered for the future.

Skinny Tan was launched in 2013, after entrepreneurs Louise Ferguson and Kate Cotton won £60,000 of investment from panellists Piers Linney and Kelly Hoppen.

It was the most successful pitch for investment in the history of the BBC2 show, as all five dragons fought fiercely for the chance to invest.

The firm was bought up by beauty giant InnovaDerma in 2015, which defends its cellulite-reduction claims, stating: "[it was] commonly believed that tanning could make you look thinner" and that its claims were only in regard to the "cosmetic effect of the tan", not any actual physiological effects of the product.

Rival beauty firm PZ Cussons launched the investigation after filing a complaint with the ASA regarding an advertising campaign on Skinny Tan's Facebook page and the nature of the promotional content on its website.

The ASA said that other claims, such as the brand's alleged "No 1 in the UK" status, were clearly misleading to customers and should be prohibited.

They said: "We considered that this did not constitute a substantive body of evidence to support the claims. We therefore concluded that the aims in the ads were misleading.

"We also did not receive evidence that the product as a whole, rather than just ingredients that made up the product, had been independently certified as 'natural'."

A spokesperson for InnovaDerma said: "The ASA ruling relates to online advertising from 2016 which has since been removed, and in line with our own code of ethics Skinny Tan continues to ensure that all its marketing materials comply with the ASA's rules.

"Skinny Tan is an ethical brand and we are proud of our ethos, innovation and ability to provide our customers with high quality and effective products which contain naturally derived ingredients such as guarana, are always vegan and cruelty free.

"Many of our customers feedback on our products no-streak formula, natural looking result, coconut fragrance and the added confidence boost gained."

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