Wake up, don’t smell the roses!

Watchdog rejects gardening centre’s Covid claims

IRELAND’S advertising watchdog has ruled against a garden centre which claimed that smelling its roses could prevent people getting the coronavirus.

The nursery in Dublin also said that its roses had prevented cold and flu, and cured a staff member’s athlete’s foot and diabetes, just by taking a sniff.

The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) said the advert by Marian Nurseries in Lusk, Co. Dublin, was misleading.

A member of the public complained after reading an ad in a national newspaper, which read: ‘I (name redacted) of Marian Nurseries, Lusk, have discovered the potential benefits of rose bushes cultivated and grown at our facility for the cure of cold/flu.

‘I believe these benefits may also be effective in self-protection from the reported effects of Covid-19, by keeping the plant close to the patient. I attribute the recovery of my own colds, flu & chest infections to these rose bushes. Available at Marian Nurseries.’

The person who made the complaint said there was ‘no medical evidence to support the claims’, and feared the ad could entice people with concerns about Covid-19 into buying a product.

‘Very beneficial organism’

In response, Marian Nurseries told the ASAI that its claims were based on a microrganism called an entophyte, which is found in most plants.

The nursery admitted it could see how its claim was hard to believe. However, the experience of its staff pointed to the entophyte being ‘a very beneficial organism’.

A nursery supervisor told the ASAI that he suffered from bad colds before using this method. Previously he had to take antibiotics as his colds often led to chest infections and bouts of diarrhoea. He claimed that after sniffing the roses, his next cold was a three-day event, with no need for antibiotics.

The supervisor also said that while one blood test saw him diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, a second blood test, taken after sniffing the roses, showed no trace of the disease.

Marian Nurseries contended that 90% of the organisms in the human body cannot be identified. They said that while a cold cure has never been found, the endophyte organism seemed to work.

However, the ASAI said that ads for health and beauty products and treatments should be ‘backed by substantiation’, including the results of robust and reputable trials on human subjects.

The ad had referred to ‘potential benefits’ of the rose bushes and included statements that the roses ‘may also be effective’ in preventing some ailments, implying that the benefits were not guaranteed, the ASAI noted.

An ASAI committee considered that the advertising was likely to mislead consumers, including those concerned about the impact of Covid-19.

It said the ad must not reappear in its current form and told the advertiser not to make claims that were not substantiated.

This was one of two complaints upheld against companies claiming to be able to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The Robin Hill Sanctuary in Cobh, Co. Cork, posted an advertisement on Facebook with an image of the coronavirus and the claim that a staff member at the Robin Hill Clinic had researched and developed a homeopathic remedy that ‘enhanced the immune system and built resistance to the Covid-19 virus’.

The person who made the complaint said that the ad ‘preyed on vulnerable and scared people’.

The Robin Hill Sanctuary said it ‘had been studying the progress of the coronavirus since early January 2020’ and with its knowledge of homeopathy ‘had formulated a remedy to boost the immune system’. The ASAI noted advice from the World Health Organisation (WHO) which said there was ‘no evidence that current medicine can prevent or cure the disease’.

‘In view of the information provided on the WHO’s website and in the absence of independent, peer-reviewed data that applied to Covid-19, the committee considered that the advertising was in breach,’ the ASAI said.

It added: ‘As the advertising had been removed, there was no further action required in relation to this advertisement.’

‘Preyed on scared and vulnerable’