Scots eye firm rapped over adverts suggesting they treated top golfer

Published on Tuesday 26 April 2011 17:41

A SCOTS optical firm has been ordered to withdraw one of its adverts, which claims golfer Padraig Harrington had laser eye surgery with the company.

Optical Express implied in a TV advert and brochure that the two times Open winner had benefited from surgery with the Cumbernauld-based firm. The UK's advertising watchdog said it did not think that was the case, saying the ad was "misleading".

Last night, however, the company hit back at the ruling, telling The Scotsman that it stood by the advert and would take legal action in an attempt to overturn the decision by the Advertising Standard Authority (ASA).

A spokesperson for Optical Express said: "Padraig Harrington is a patient of Optical Express and has received laser eye surgery at our clinic in Dublin. This complaint was raised by another laser eye surgery provider, not by a patient or consumer. The ASA have ruled in favour of the competitor and we will be taking every possible legal action available to us to challenge this decision and have it reversed."

The brochure and TV ad commissioned by the firm - which has 250 outlets across the UK and Europe - featured the Irish sportsman discussing why he chose laser eye surgery.

He said: "People often ask me, 'How can I improve my game?' I tell them the secret is to stay focused. And of course it's important to have great vision … My advice? Visit Optical Express, Europe's number one provider of laser eye surgery." And he adds: "It could help your game too."

A rival eyecare business, Ultralase, challenged the firm's claim after it found out the golfer actually had the specialist treatment elsewhere.

Last year, Harrington said: "In 1999 I had laser eye surgery in Harley Street, which is an Optical Express-owned facility. In 2002, I had another laser eye surgery on Wellington Road in Dublin, which is where Optical Express is now. I was sitting in the same room three weeks ago, having treatment by Optical Express"

But the ASA ruling disputed claims the surgery was carried out by the firm. It said: "We noted the TV ad did not contain a specific statement that Padraig Harrington had had laser eye surgery, or that he had had laser eye surgery at Optical Express."However, we considered that the claims 'And of course its important to have great vision … My advice? Visit Optical Express, Europe's number one provider of laser eye surgery' and 'It could help your game too' was likely to be interpreted by viewers as a claim Mr Harrington had experience of the benefits of laser eye surgery at Optical Express.

"Because we considered that the ad implied that Mr Harrington had had laser eye surgery at Optical Express, and because we understood that was not the case, we concluded that the ad was misleading."

In total, the ASA ruled that 23 out of 25 claims made by the firm in promotional material could not be backed up.

A claim that the firm's 'LASIK' laser tools had been approved in all its forms by Nasa, for use by its astronauts, was criticised - the ASA ruled that only some elements had been officially sanctioned by the US agency.

Optical Express was also criticised for claiming its "clinical excellence" is "well documented in leading research journals across Europe and the US".

The ASA noted that articles which appeared in scientific journals had been authored by members of the firm's International Medical Advisory Board.