The DIY guide to spotting bad science in adverts

Some people have asked me about whether products they've seen in adverts actually work or not. Mostly ones I've never heard of because I usually get my toiletries from Savers. What I have told them is this: you don't need an expert to tell you whether a product works or not. Just as you should be wary of a celeb endorsing a product you should probably be equally wary of people like me telling you it doesn't work! Science is not so complicated that you couldn't figure it out, if you know what to look for.

This is my guide to being sceptical of the use of science in adverts.

1. Check whether those "studies" are proper clinical trials or consumer surveys. When as advert says "studies have shown", it doesn't mean much. If you can't see any evidence of a clinical trial be suspicious. A survey can be someone whizzing around an office asking people for their thoughts; not very scientific. A clinical trial should use a rigorous method to test whether something works (e.g. product X gets rid of spots) by eliminating other possible causes of an effect. Design of clinical trials is a long topic, but the basics, if you want to know, are that:
• there should be some control group (e.g. some people don't get given product X but a blank product)
• the people involved in the study shouldn't know whether they have been given product X or the blank (this gets rid of bias - a person knowingly using product X may assume it will work and report positive results because of that)
• the way in which people are allocated into groups to get product X or the blank is randomised (this also gets rid of bias, e.g. product X isn't given to the people who had less spots to start with anyway, meaning you'd get a more positive result). 
2. If it's a survey, look at the numbers. Surveys gain credibility if they are representative of a group of people. If a survey finds that 86% of women were happy with a face cream, you may think great - it works! But if that 86% was 43 women out of 50, the numbers are probably too low to mean much. There are tens of millions of women in the UK, does a sample group of 50 really represent us? There are lots of other problems with surveys, but the numbers do tend to be put in the small print of adverts so that's an easy one to look out for.
3. Listen to the wording. Does skin serum make women's skin more supple or do women report that it makes their skin feel more supple? I call these woolly words; they leave so much room for ambiguity. They don't really mean anything, it's just opinions masquerading as science.
4. Ignore the buzzy scientific images. They often mean nothing and don't prove that something works. Just another selling tool.
5. Ignore jazzy scientific jargon. Yes some of the words are real scientific terms, but others are not. Pantene shampoos contain "Pro-V" - what is that exactly? Well in this case it stands for pro-vitamin B5, a common ingredient in many shampoos. Nowt special about Pantene.The ultimate tool for busting through the jargon is Google, so use it!
6. No cosmetic can stop wrinkles permanently. This seems easy to forget with the constant bombardment of convincing advertising, but ultimately only surgical methods can get rid of wrinkles. Some creams may reduce the wrinkly look for a short while, but that's all. So if you want that cream because the packaging is attractive or you like the smell/feel of it, knock yourself out. Just don't fool yourself into believing it will reverse time on your face and be £100 out of pocket to boot.

Well I'm sure I've left things off this list, but it is 2am after all! I also realise I've focused mainly on the beauty product spectrum of adverts, but as we all know, these are the worst for using science to market spurious claims. Do you have your own tips? Please share in the comments section.