Advertising watchdog bans Facebook ads telling viewers to 'smoke all you want' and showing suicidal person teetering on ledge to sell AI therapy

Published 4 November 2026, 16:44

• In its ruling, the Advertising Standards Authority said Pulmoria Mullein Drops falsely implied they could cure smokers' lung disease.
• Copymind, an AI therapy app, mocked human therapists and used an image showing someone on the brink of suicide.
• Neither company bothered to answer the watchdog, and both cases now face its enforcement team.

Two Facebook ads - one telling smokers they could "smoke all you want" and one showing bare feet dangling over a building ledge to sell AI therapy - have been banned by the UK's Advertising Standards Authority.

The ASA ruled against Pulmoria Mullein Drops, a herbal supplement sold by US-based GMB Agency LLC, after its Facebook ad, seen on 18 July 2026, opened with the headline "SMOKE ALL YOU WANT Just clear your lungs Daily."

The ad featured before-and-after images of blackened lungs turning pink over 90 days, alongside claims including "Reduces Morning Cough," "Clears Tar & Buildup," "Stop Wheezing" and "Restores Easy Breathing."

The ASA found the claims, taken together with the lung imagery, "would be understood by consumers as claims that Pulmoria Mullein Drops could treat or cure respiratory symptoms and conditions caused by smoking."

Under the CAP Code, food supplements are prohibited from claiming to prevent, treat or cure human disease.

Two additional claims — that the product "Supports healthy lung function and oxygen flow" and "Promotes restful sleep, and an energized body" — were likewise prohibited as health claims absent from the nutrition and health claims register for Great Britain, which is the sole register of health claims legally permitted in British food advertising.

The second ruling concerned two Facebook ads for Copymind, an AI therapy app operated by Antipadia Enterprises Ltd, seen on 14 March 2026.

The ASA said the Copymind ruling forms part of a wider, ongoing programme examining AI product advertising, with related rulings published on 2 September, 16 September and 14 October 2026.

The first Copymind ad opened with text reading "IF YOUR PAIN WAS EVER THIS BIG YOU WANTED TO FINALLY END THIS — TRY HEALING WITH YOUR AI TWIN," then cut to a clear view looking down from a tall building with a person's bare feet positioned with their toes hanging over the ledge.

The second ad mocked conventional therapy: "I was paying $150 an hour to… chat. We had no goals. No tools. No structure. Week after week, same conversations. She'd ask how my week was. We'd talk. She'd nod. Session over. And she never remembered anything from the week before."

The ASA consulted the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, which told the watchdog "the ads made inferred medical claims and that the product was likely to fall within the scope of the medical device regulatory framework, which included software as a medical device."

The app was not registered with the MHRA and did not hold the required conformity marking, meaning no medical claims could legally be made for it.

On the building-ledge imagery, the ASA ruled that the bare feet combined with the phrase "finally end this" was "a clear reference to suicide" that "was likely to cause distress to some people, particularly those who had been affected by suicide or were struggling with their own mental health."

Because the app was unlicensed and itself discouraged proper treatment, the watchdog concluded that "ad (a) was irresponsible, likely to cause unjustifiable distress and serious offence, and therefore breached the Code."

Neither GMB Agency LLC nor Antipadia Enterprises Ltd responded to the ASA's enquiries — itself a separate breach of the CAP Code covering unreasonable delay.

Both cases have been referred to CAP's Compliance team for further enforcement action.