Lip fillers advert banned for telling parents to 'support' children who want procedure

An advert for lip fillers has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for presenting the procedure as something parents “should support” their children with.

There is currently no minimum age for Botox or filler injections in the UK, although some people have petitioned to the UK government to invoke a ban on under 18s getting treatments of this nature.

Many clinics will ask for parental permission before performing the treatment on minors.

The Royal Tunbridge Wells Skin Clinic (RTWSkin) published an advert which suggested parents of young girls should support this “commonplace” treatment to ensure their daughter’s safety.

The advert was published in Index magazine, a lifestyle publication covering Kent and East Sussex.

It stated: “Dermal fillers are very quickly becoming as commonplace as getting your hair done these days and even more so within the younger age group.”

“Is your daughter beginning to take an interest in LIP FILLERS? Recently, we have seen an increase in young girls visiting our clinic for procedures such as Dermal Filler.”

The now-banned advert also suggested parents should “find somewhere safe and suitable” for their daughter’s treatment, saying the alternative may be for children to “go behind their backs, blindly searching for the cheapest practitioner without realising the risks”.

The ASA has since reviewed and banned the advertisement, after a reader complaint was issued.

The advertising body found not only did the cosmetic surgery clinic present lip fillers as “normal”, it also did not adequately highlight the associated risks.

“While the ad warned against going to unsuitable practitioners, it made no reference to the risks that would always be attached to lip filler treatment, wherever one went for it,” reads the report.

“We considered that, by presenting lip fillers as normal and safe (if carried out at the right clinic) for young women and teenagers, and something that responsible parents should support, the ad was irresponsible.”

John Sheffield, director at the Royal Tunbridge Wells Skin Clinic, told Yahoo Style UK he is “shocked” by the decision.

“No, I do not agree, and we were shocked by the ASA’s decision. This was based on one complaint by someone who had never visited our clinic,” he told us.

“We have had many commendations from people who completely support our approach to education of young people to the dangers of dermal fillers in unskilled and unregulated hands.”

Of course, there are manifold risks associated with lip fillers. Last year, a woman’s lip injections, which she had at a “Botox party”, went horribly wrong and she was left with substantial swelling.

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