Toks Beverley Coker - Crazy Name, Crazy Gal!

Toks Beverley Coker - that's her real name, apparently - offers a number of complementary therapies.

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By the way, if any of you are looking for some reflexology, Taoist massage, distance healing or "Starlight Spiritual Counselling", there's an unused £10 gift voucher sitting on my desk.

First come, first served!

Bev's flyer (available here and here) is a real gem. Not for the preposterous pseudoscientific nonsense it contains, mind you:

"Reflexology... eliminates toxins, helps with digestive problems... stimulates the body's natural healing process, strengthening all body systems..."

Nor because of this:

"Swedish Therapeutic Massage... clears toxins, improves concentration...soothes cancer and HIV patients..."

Or even this:

"Distant & Absent Healing... Channelling of healing energy to someone in another place e.g. home, hospital, country..."

What truly pushes the flyer into my personal top ten is the sight of Bev doing some sort of Egyptian fertility dance in front of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

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I've included my ASA complaint here. A separate complaint to the Egyptian Tourist Board will have to wait for another day.

"I write to complain about a leaflet I picked up at the CamExpo exhibition in London on 24th October this year.

The leaflet, for Toks Beverley Coker, promotes a number of complementary therapies that she offers.

I suspect that the leaflet may be in breach the British Code of Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing (CAP Code). I can provide the original leaflet by post, if necessary.

1. Under Section 12.1 of the CAP Code, I challenge whether the advertiser can substantiate any of the following claims:

(i) "Reflexology... Dates back to 2330BC in ancient Egypt"
(ii) Reflexology "relieves depression and PMT"
(iii) Reflexology "eliminates toxins, helps with digestive problems... stimulates the body's natural healing process, strengthening all body systems."
(iv) Indian Head Massage "stimulates...hair growth"
(v) Swedish Therapeutic Massage "clears toxins, improves concentration...soothes cancer and HIV patients..."
(vi) "Taoist Massage / Chi Nei Tsang" can "release...toxins held in knots and twists in the abdomen" and is "Good for treating digestive problems, constipation and diarrhoea".
(vii) Thai Massage can "encourage detoxification"
(viii) The advertiser is able to heal "someone in another place e.g. home, hospital, country" using her "Distant & Absent Healing"

2. I confirm I have no connections with the advertiser. I confirm I am not involved in legal proceedings with the advertiser."