Groupon Barred from Selling Snake Oil

Sometimes, life imitates cliches.

The U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority has determined that Groupon, the online coupon thingy, misled customers when it held a special on, yes, snake oil. We're not even going to bother with the obvious cliche, because this is just too perfect to be sullied by a news editor's vain attempts at humour. Anyhow, the product in question is Wrinkle Killer Snake Serum, a product made with imitation viper venom that professes to keep wrinkles from developing. The Groupon offer said the snake oil "helps reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles" and "leaves the skin looking younger." But a few customers complained to the ASA, and the ASA decided that there was not nearly enough evidence to support any of the ad's claims. Hence, ASA decided that the snake oil ad was misleading, and demanded that Groupon never run ads for the snake oil ever again.

(H/T to Boing Boing.)