A New Zealand cosmetic-clinic website cannot lawfully publish a result story, a named prescription brand next to a unit price, or a nurse recommending a product. A consultation is a private clinical conversation. A public page is often an advertisement.
Silk Clinical is nurse-led. Clinical authority is Shontelle Prasad RN. Following advertising rules is not a certificate of clinical quality.
The rules come from the Medicines Act 1981 Part 4, Medsafe's advertising guideline, and the ASA Therapeutic and Health Advertising Code. The Medical Council advertising statement applies to doctors, not automatically to registered nurses. The Act and the ASA Code still bind a nurse-led clinic's medical advertisements.
Why drug names and prices do not sit together
Naming a prescription medicine on a public page can make that page a medical advertisement. Under Medsafe's guideline, advertisements for prescription medicines directed at the public must include the words "Prescription Medicine" or similar, the name and quantity of each active ingredient, the intended purpose, a statement that the medicine has risks and benefits, how to find further information on those risks and benefits, and the advertiser's name and address. Only medicines granted consent to sale, supply or distribution in New Zealand may be advertised. Unapproved medicines and unapproved uses cannot be advertised.
A clinic website that describes uses or outcomes is not a simple price list.
This article names no toxin price and carries no product offer.
Testimonials and before-and-afters
Under section 58 of the Medicines Act 1981, a medical advertisement must not claim, indicate or suggest that a medicine, medical device or method of treatment has beneficially affected the health of a particular person or class of persons, named or unnamed, real or fictitious.
Under the ASA Code, testimonials must not suggest a benefit to an individual's health, and patient testimonials are not permitted in public advertising of prescription medicines. Advertisers remain responsible for comments, tags and emoji replies on channels they control. Service-experience comments, such as wait times, may still be available.
The New Zealand Society of Cosmetic Medicine reads identifiable before-and-after images as testimonials prohibited under the Act. The Act does not use that phrase.
The same section bans claiming that a practitioner, nurse or pharmacist has used or recommended a medicine, medical device or method of treatment. The ASA Code restates the healthcare-professional endorsement ban. It covers nurses as well as doctors.
The Medical Council of New Zealand's April 2022 statement on advertising prohibits doctors from using or quoting testimonials on platforms they control. That is a doctor standard, not a Nursing Council advertising code.
Words that should trigger caution
The ASA Code bans claims that a product, device or service is safe, has no risks, works in all cases, or is a guaranteed or miracle cure. Claims must be substantiated before they are made; testimonials do not count. Read "guaranteed", "safe", "no risk", "miracle", or "clinically proven" without the registered indication as a caution flag, along with isolated medicine-price comparisons and lists of unapproved use areas. Silk's clinical refusals are listed in What We Will Not Treat.
How to complain
Advertising that targets New Zealanders goes to the Advertising Standards Authority. The ASA does not accept anonymous complaints, does not fine advertisers, cannot order refunds, and does not hear Fair Trading Act complaints. If a complaint is upheld, it requests removal or amendment.
Care quality, including cosmetic procedures, goes to the Health and Disability Commissioner after you raise it with the clinic. The Commissioner cannot award compensation.
Unlawful therapeutic advertising goes to Medsafe. Practitioner conduct goes to the Nursing Council or the Medical Council. Check the public register for the person who would inject you. Choosing a Nurse Injector sets out the questions.
Ask who injects, what product, and what the clinic will refuse.
If you want a conversation rather than an advertisement, book a consultation with a registered nurse.
Filed underadvertising codeMedicines ActASAtransparency
