ASA monthly insights December 2025: Rulings you need to know about

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) published 35 rulings in December. As ever, the rulings assessed compliance under The UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing (CAP Code) and The UK Code of Broadcast Advertising (BCAP Code).

The ASA’s Active Ad Monitoring system finished out the year strong, with a significant number of investigations resulting from it. 

Unregulated investments: AI finds art investment ads

The Financial Conduct Authority regulates the advertising of regulated investments. Advertising for unregulated investments in non-broadcast advertising is covered by the ASA, and over the years, all sorts of investment products have been investigated.

In December, it was fine art. Ads inviting consumers to “Invest in Art with Confidence”, “Make your first art investment…” and “Build A Solid Tangible Hedge Against Inflation” were ruled non-compliant for failing to include information about the risks of investment and failing to make clear that the value of investments was variable. 

An ad making claims on the return on investment of 75% was found to be in breach of the CAP Code because the advertiser did not provide evidence that the sale was representative of the returns which could be realised. Ads were also ruled non-compliant for not making clear that previous performance (e.g. “257% rise in value” ) did not necessarily indicate future performance. The ASA made clear its position that information about risk is material and should be stated in the initial advertising copy.

Unregulated investments: Wine 

Following a complaint to the ASA, it investigated an ad for wine as an investment which raised similar issues. A website made claims that wine was an “asset worth waiting for” and provided drop down options for consumers to choose an investment amount and a time period which would then generate the amount they “would have today”.

For example, someone investing £505,000 two years previously would have £626,503. The ASA ruled the ad breached the CAP Code because it did not make clear that wine investment was unregulated or that the value of investments could go down as well as up, and evidence was not provided to substantiate the claims. 

Environmental claims in fashion

Three fashion brands were picked up by the ASA’s Active Ad Monitoring system because their paid-for search advertising made environmental claims which the ASA ruled were misleading because the basis of the claim was not made clear in the ad and the appropriately robust evidence to support absolute claims was not provided. The claims were all general references to sustainability “Sustainable Style”, “Sustainable Materials” and “Sustainable […] clothing” and the rulings highlight that the green claims remain under ASA scrutiny.

Proactive investigations on ads referencing prostate health 

Six rulings dealt with a variety of problematic claims across different product types. Issues identified included:

• claims food supplements could prevent, treat or cure human disease, which included claims to treat or cure enlarged prostate and the symptoms of prostate problems (“helps with problems with enlarged prostate and frequent urination”)

• making medicinal claims for products that did not hold a marketing authorisation from the MHRA (“to reduce prostate inflammation”)

• discouraging essential treatment for which medical supervision should be sought (“Skip The Doctors”)
• claims that an unauthorised product could make an accurate or definitive medical diagnosis of prostate problems, including prostate cancer (“Prostate Cancer Home Test Kits”)

• using individual health professionals to endorse a medicine (“our doctor-formulated natural prostate supplement”)

• falsely claiming or implying the advertiser was acting for purposes outside their trade (“Our experts rated these 5 brands higher”)

And finally… 

The ASA ruled that the artwork of Keith Haring would not be of particular appeal to people under 18 and that visuals in the style of the artist (who lived between 1958 - 1990) were acceptable for use in advertising for a vodka brand.