Aesthetics clinics live on their websites and social feeds, and the rules for their most popular treatment are some of the strictest in UK advertising. Botulinum toxin is a prescription only medicine, and prescription only medicines cannot be advertised to the public. That catches out a lot of clinic websites, often without the owner realising.
What counts as advertising a prescription only medicine?
Almost any reference. The ASA treats naming Botox, or a clear indirect reference to it, as promoting the medicine. That covers the clinic's own website, its social posts and hashtags, and content it reposts from someone else. Before and after photos of toxin treatments count as claims, and so do endorsements from health professionals or celebrities.
What can a clinic website say?
Websites get a narrow allowance. A clinic can present a prescription only medicine as one possible treatment option that follows a consultation, in factual terms. So the thing you promote is the consultation, not the product.
- Lead your homepage and ads with consultations, not toxin treatments
- Keep price lists that mention prescription only medicines off the homepage
- Describe outcomes in measured terms, with no guarantees
- Take product names out of hashtags, image file names, and page titles
- Make sure a prescriber, not a sales message, decides whether treatment goes ahead
How should booking work for these treatments?
Consultation first. Patients book a consultation, the prescriber assesses them, and only then is a treatment appointment offered. A booking system can enforce this for you: treatment slots only open once a consultation is marked complete, and the public booking page never names a prescription only medicine.
Build pages around the concern, not the product
Give each concern its own page, such as lines and wrinkles or excessive sweating, and answer what patients actually ask: what happens at the consultation, who carries it out, their qualifications, and what the options might be. It is better for compliance and better for search, because people search for the concern long before they search for a product.
This is general guidance, not legal advice. The ASA's advice pages are the place to check specifics, and the CAP Copy Advice team can review wording before it goes live.
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Related service: Clinic Websites