The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld the complaint and warned the advert is misleading.
The commercial claims that 37 per cent of women feel more attractive now than they did ten years ago, although there is confusion as to whether the women surveyed made the statement in reference to using the cream.
Misleading claims in advert
The face cream advert showed a woman moisturising her face in front of a mirror. A voice-over stated ‘Nivea Visage Anti-Wrinkle Q10 Plus helps reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.’
A large group of the woman's friends were then shown arriving and surprising her with a birthday cake. The voice-over stated ‘So it's no surprise that 37 per cent of women feel more attractive now than they did ten years ago.’
However a viewer complaint then commented on the confusion over whether the 37 per cent of women quoted are actually referring to use of the face cream, or just in general.
Beiersdorf not 100 per cent sure of survey results
Parent company Beiersdorf responded by stating the claim was taken from a survey conducted on attitudes and philosophies to life.
The 12,267 women surveyed were all subscribers to the Nivea email newsletter.
Beiersdorf supplied a copy of the survey from which the claim was taken, but stated that although 95 per cent of the respondents were Nivea users, they could not say how many used the advertised product specifically.
Complaint upheld
The ASA has upheld the complaint saying the claim could be understood by consumers to mean that 37% of women interviewed felt more attractive because they used the advertised product.
The advertising watchdog stated: “We understood from the survey that respondents had been asked whether they agreed with the statement "I feel more attractive today than I did ten years ago" in general terms, rather than in relation to the advertised product or its effects.”
“We considered that the ad presented the relationship between the advertised product and the survey results in a way that was ambiguous, and could be confusing for consumers, and we therefore concluded that the ad was misleading.”
The ASA says the advert has breached the CAP code, clauses 3.1 and 7.1 for substantiation and truthfulness and must not appear again in its current form.