Rocchetta should not proclaim itself ‘Water of health‘ as instead we have seen since 2004 in TV commercials, in newspaper advertisements and as we read on bottle labels. The last spot is on Friday 26 May 2023 on the La7 television channel, where the advertisement with Michele Hunziker of the Rocchetta mineral water concludes with the phrase ‘Acqua della salute’. We have repeatedly reiterated that this claim is misleading and that any reference to health should be prohibited in advertisements for mineral waters in order not to induce consumers to attribute unjustified qualities to these mineral waters. The request was forwarded several times to the Advertising Self-Regulatory Institute which in 2004, with Ruling no. 211/04, it was expressed, but the document, unlike what was read inside it, concluded in a paradoxical way.
“Reput the Committee of Control that the statement “the waters of health” is unacceptable because it is deceptive. The reference to “health” is in fact – according to the Control Committee – wholly inappropriate and potentially equivocal for the public of consumers if it concerns products which, being and remaining simple foods, do not have any therapeutic or preventive properties in and of themselves and have characteristics on average possessed by similar products. And then: “qAs for the reference to ‘health‘, the Committee illustrated its position by declaring that it should not be allowed also because other advertising of the same mineral waters shows that they are attributed therapeutic characteristics such as that of promoting digestion, diuresis, etc. etc.. […] the Committee has recently examined various food advertisements in relation to which it has placed itself in the perspective of avoiding any reference to health. It’s still: “as regards the reference to health, the Committee intends to work to ensure that it is banned from the advertising of food products, especially since the health benefit is exploited on the basis of the concern that Italians have in this regard. The term ‘the waters of health‘ – for the Control Committee – is not generic because it contains a specific reference to the therapeutic function of the product.”
After these enlightened reflections, the statement concludes that: “to the Jury it does not appear to comply with art. 2 of the Code is that Uliveto and Rocchetta are qualified as ‘the’ waters of health because the determination inherent in the article inevitably entails that the two waters in question acquire a character of superiority, that there is no proof that they possess compared to the many others mineral waters that crowd the Italian market.” In short, the problem is not the reference to ‘health‘ through any means of diffusion, but the definite article ‘le’.
That the Institute of Self-Regulation advertising is a bit confused as demonstrated by a recent Injunction (n. 21/22 of 11/7/22) in which one of Rocchetta’s latest messages is censured for deceptive commercial communication “helps maintain skin hydration”; “hydration with Rocchetta water helps protect the cells of the epidermis from free radicals (the main causes of ageing)… helping to maintain the cellular vitality of our skin”. In support of this last decision, the authority brings up the claim “Acqua della Salute”, considering him guilty of creating, together with the other messages, “the specific medical aura that the message attributes to the promised effects of the advertised water (for example through the claims: “Acqua della Salute”; the cellular protection action referred to by a scientific study published in a medical journal; the logo of a medical association, etc.) is not acceptable in the absence of a claim that has been specifically requested and evaluated by EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority, which, as is known, is responsible for issuing scientific opinions which provide the basis for permissible claims for food products and food supplements.”
The Institute of Advertising Self-Regulation a few weeks ago he informed us that he had asked Cogedi (owner of the Rocchetta and Uliveto brands) to demonstrate the truthfulness of some sentences inserted in various commercials, specifying that he had obtained the modification of some claim not attributable to the terms of the decree of the Ministry of Health n. 4415 of 2022 (decree that only authorizes the statement that Rocchetta is a water that “It contributes to the hydration of the epidermis and maintains its physiological cell regeneration”).
Unfortunately the sentences that the Iap has managed to modify are not known. The fact remains that the slogan “Water of health“, despite the observations made by the IAP for years, is regularly used. It would be enough to do a quick review of what has been written in past years and consult a nutrition text to realize that Uliveto and Rocchetta cannot be defined as “Waters of health“. It would be enough to recall the six measures accumulated over the years by incorrect advertising of these waters to realize that the slogan presents critical issues and is not supported by scientific foundations. We expect more consistency from an authority such as the Advertising Self-Regulatory Institute which has experts, professionals and nutritionists able to evaluate the incorrectness of the commercial, thus maintaining the credibility acquired over the years.
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June 15, 2023