Adverts for a diamond producer have been banned for deceptive customers by not making it clear the gems are artificial.
Press and Instagram adverts for Skydiamond in February final 12 months, in addition to its web site, featured the headline, “Say whats up to the world’s first and solely diamond made solely from the sky.”
Smaller textual content beneath said: “We make diamonds utilizing 4 pure substances, the solar, wind, rain and one thing we’ve an excessive amount of of, atmospheric carbon. In doing so, our expertise turns a damaging right into a constructive. Now that we are able to mine the sky, we by no means must mine the earth once more.”
A “Incessantly Requested Questions” web page included the query “Are Skydiamonds actual diamonds?” and the reply: “Every Skydiamond is a wonderfully fashioned actual diamond.”
The Pure Diamond Council, who understood the merchandise had been laboratory-created diamonds, complained that the claims “Skydiamonds”, “diamonds”, “actual diamonds” and “diamonds made solely from the sky” within the adverts had been deceptive.
The Sky Mining Firm, buying and selling as Skydiamond, believed that the adverts made clear that their diamonds weren’t mined from the earth and as such weren’t naturally occurring diamonds, known as pure diamonds.
They advised the Promoting Requirements Authority (ASA) that they didn’t consider that the absence of the phrases “artificial”, “laboratory-grown” or “laboratory-created” would inevitably lead a median client to be misled about their diamonds.
Quite the opposite, they believed that the extent of the qualifying info, graphics and visuals made available might solely lead a median client to conclude that their diamonds weren’t earth-mined, as they supposed.
The agency mentioned a Skydiamond was a diamond, “chemically, structurally and optically”, and had precisely the identical composition and bodily properties of a pure diamond.
The ASA mentioned customers would perceive the phrase “diamond” in isolation to imply a mineral consisting of crystallised carbon that was naturally occurring.
It mentioned: “We thought of that whereas some customers could have been conscious that artificial diamonds may very well be manufactured or created in a laboratory, many wouldn’t.”
It added: “We understood that though artificial diamonds had the identical chemical and bodily properties as mined diamonds, there have been variations of their future worth.
“We additionally thought of that, whether or not a gemstone was man-made or natural can be a key consideration for a lot of customers and was subsequently materials info.
“We subsequently thought of that adverts for artificial diamonds wanted to clarify the character of the product with a purpose to keep away from deceptive customers.”
The ASA concluded: “As a result of the adverts didn’t clarify that Skydiamond diamonds had been artificial, we concluded that the claims ‘diamonds’, ‘diamonds made solely from the sky’ and ‘Skydiamond’ had been deceptive.
“The adverts should not seem once more within the type complained about.”
The watchdog added: “We additionally advised them to not use the declare ‘actual diamonds’ to explain artificial diamonds.”
