*Barbara Ciereszko - future Nobel Prize winner

According to her advert in Nexus Magazine, Barbara's plexiglas "P-8.5" plate can strengthen your immune system, remove nitrates from water, and make magnesium appear out of thin air!

UPDATE, 30 Mar: ASA confirm that the advert has been withdrawn.

(Image credit)

I feel guilty submitting a letter to the ASA, rather than to the Nobel Prize Committee directly.

(Note for Marasu Emoto fans: this advert is relevant to your interests!)

"I write to complain about an advert published in Nexus Magazine, Vol. 17, No. 2 (February-March 2010).

The advert, for Barbara Jasmyyn Ciereszko, is entitled "WHAT KIND OF WATER DO YOU DRINK?"

I have submitted a scan of the advert. I can provide an original copy of the advert by post, if required.

I suspect that the advert is in breach of three sections of the British Code of Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing (CAP) code.

1. Nexus Magazine is published in the UK "under licence by Nexus Magazine (UK) Ltd". It is available in high street shops like WH Smiths.

2. The February-March 2010 issue (Vol. 17, No. 2, page 65) carried an advert entitled "WHAT KIND OF WATER DO YOU DRINK?"

3. The advert promoted the "P-8.5 Plate", a "Plexiglas disc" that is used to improve the characteristics of water.

4. The CAP Code, Section 3.1, states "Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove all claims, whether direct or implied, that are capable of objective substantiation."

5. The CAP Code, Section 50.1, states "Medical and scientific claims made about beauty and health-related products should be backed by evidence, where appropriate consisting of trials conducted on people..."

6. I challenge whether Barbara Jasmyyn Ciereszko holds documentary evidence for any of the following claims, and whether any of the following claims are backed by appropriate evidence consisting of trials conducted on people (where applicable):

(i) The plate creates a specific clockwise rotary field beneficial to all living organisms;

(ii) The plate can transform lifeless water into living water, improving its biological and chemical purity, structuralising and energising it, and raising its pH to approximately 8.5;

(iii) The plate can increase water's energy to 9850 Bovis units;

(iv) Regular drinking of water from the plate can bring the claimed advantages;

(v) The precense of the plate in the room may confer the claimed benefits;

(vii) The photographs taken by Dr Masaru Emoto's "Hado Life Europe" lab are typical of water crystals subjected to the P-8.5 Plate, and do not in fact show whichever crystal (chosen from among thousands) appears to best conform to Dr Emoto's theories.

7. The CAP Code, Section 6.1, states "Marketers should not exploit the credulity, lack of knowledge or inexperience of consumers."

8. I challenge whether the advert exploits the typical consumer's lack of knowledge by using pseudoscientific terms like "Bovis Units", and by using "test reports" which do not appear to have been published in any scientific peer-reviewed journal.

9. I confirm that I have no connections with the advertiser, Nexus Magazine, or with the publishing industry in general. I confirm that I am not involved in legal proceedings with the advertiser or Nexus Magazine.

10. I confirm that I am happy to be identified as the complainant."