Supplements brand Tonic Health has drawn the ire of the ASA for making non-permitted health claims and duplicating customer reviews.
In an Instagram Reel seen in October, the brand claimed its Rest & Recover effervescent tablet was “the best sleep supplement on the market”.
The contentious video saw Tonic Health founder Sunna van Kampen take to the supplement aisle of a supermarket. He asked: “Are you struggling with sleep? Well, I’ve got just the thing for you […] Tonic have just launched our Rest & Recover, which is over 300mg of bioavailable magnesium along with ashwagandha and lemon balm.”
The accompanying caption states: “Our new 4-in-1 effervescent designed to support your sleep and recovery. With a soothing cherry flavour, each effervescent blends 300mg of essential magnesium, 100mg of KSM-66 Ashwagandha, and 500mg of calming lemon balm. This powerhouse combination helps ease stress, improve sleep, and support muscle recovery so you can wake up refreshed and ready for the day ahead.”
The ASA challenged whether the general and specific health claims in the Instagram Reel complied with the CAP Code.
Meanwhile, a registered associate nutritionist filed a complaint against Tonic Health on the basis of testimonials on its website that had been duplicated and appeared under different customer names. The complainant challenged whether the testimonials were genuine.
‘Misleading’ impressions
The ASA considered that “the best sleep supplement on the market” was a comparative specific health claim that required substantiation through the Great Britain Nutrition & Health Claims Register (the GB NHC Register). Similarly, it had not seen evidence that the claims made against the specific ingredients had been authorised on the GB NHC Register.
For the purposes of the code, the name of the product itself, Rest & Recover, was a general health claim. In the context of an ad, therefore, it would need to be accompanied by a relevant specific authorised health claim, the ASA said.
While Tonic Health advised that a “technical error” had led to customer reviews being duplicated on its site, the ASA considered that this had “created the misleading impression that more customers had independently submitted similar positive feedback than was actually the case”.
Furthermore, despite the complainant reporting the issue to Tonic Health in November, the duplicated reviews had continued to appear as late as January 2025.
The verdict
Both issues were upheld, with the ASA advising that the ads must not appear again in their current form. Despite the ruling, the video in question was still live on Tonic Health’s Instagram and TikTok channels at the time of writing.
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“Our mission is to genuinely improve the health of the UK with science-led products and transparent, honest and engaging health information,” van Kampen told The Grocer.
“While we fully respect the ASA’s role and have updated our wording, we also believe it’s vital to keep pace with the latest research, which often moves faster than official registers.
“Ultimately, we’re driven by ethics, evidence, and a commitment to helping people make informed health choices about their wellbeing and that will always be our north star,” van Kampen added.
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