ASA upholds complaint over creatine supplement health claims
The ASA upheld a complaint about a paid Facebook ad for a creatine supplement. It found the muscle strength and body shape claims went beyond the creatine claims authorised on the GB NHC Register.
The ruling
On 14 October 2026 the ASA published an upheld ruling on a paid Facebook ad from Unicorn Brands Ltd, trading as Nutrition Geeks. The ad was seen on 23 May 2026 and promoted the company's Pure Creatine Monohydrate product. The complaint challenged whether the ad contained health claims that breached the CAP Code.
The ad said “Clinically backed to support muscle strength”. An image carried the text “FROM PANCAKE TO PEACH” and “Creatine fuels the muscle your protein can’t build alone”. Beneath it was a before-and-after drawing in which a bottom looked more shapely in the ‘after’ version. A product image below carried the words “Muscle Definition”.
The authorised creatine claims
The ASA stated that only two creatine claims are authorised on the GB Nutrition and Health Claims Register (the GB NHC Register):
- “Daily creatine consumption can enhance the effect of resistance training on muscle strength in adults over the age of 55”
- “Creatine increases physical performance in successive bursts of short-term, high intensity exercise”
The advertiser's position
The company said the product provided 3.5 g of creatine per serving. It identified the “successive bursts” claim as the relevant authorised claim. Its conditions of use required a daily intake of 3 g of creatine, and required that consumers be told the effect came from that intake in adults doing high-intensity exercise. The company believed it met those conditions, because the product supplied 3.5 g per serving and the ad targeted adults doing high-intensity training.
It also relied on the Department of Health's General Principles on Flexibility of Wording for Health Claims. It argued that “support” is a weaker verb than “increases”, so “support muscle strength” was an acceptable adaptation of the authorised wording.
The company accepted that the “fuels the muscle” line went beyond the authorised claim and said it would not be used again. It also accepted that the “pancake to peach” text, the drawings and the muscle definition reference could be read as promising a change in body shape. It said those elements had been withdrawn and that the ad would not run again.
The ASA's reasoning
The ASA accepted that authorised claims can be reworded to some extent, as long as consumers are likely to take the reworded claim to mean the same thing. It did not think that was the case for “Clinically backed to support muscle strength”. The ad spoke of muscle strength in general terms. It did not make clear that the authorised benefit applies to adults over 55, or that the other authorised claim relates to successive bursts of short-term, high intensity exercise. In the ASA's view, consumers would probably understand a broad benefit for muscle strength, not the narrower effects in the authorised claims.
The ASA also considered the “fuels the muscle” line together with the other text, the illustration and “Muscle Definition”. It concluded that consumers would take the ad to mean the product could build muscle and give a more defined, shapelier bottom. That was, it said, a claim that differed materially from the authorised claims and was stronger than them. The authorised claims did not say creatine builds muscle, alters body shape or produces muscle definition, and they did not support the comparison with protein. The ASA found that these claims and images exaggerated what creatine does.
Because the health claims were not authorised on the GB NHC Register and did not mean the same to consumers as the authorised creatine claims, the ASA found the ad in breach. The breaches were of CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 15.1, 15.1.1 and 15.7.
Action required
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. The ASA told Unicorn Brands Ltd to ensure that any specific health or nutrition claims in its future advertising are authorised on the GB NHC Register and meet the conditions of use attached to them.
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