Jonathan Royle is in the news again . . . this time he’s had a complaint against him for advertising which pushes the envelope and breaks a few laws . . . Advertising Standards Authority – Non-Broadcast Adjudication Details. I’ve received copies of this ad a number of times in various spam posts. Recently, the number of hypnosis spams in Chinese have also increased (I was surprised when my wife told me she got a spam junk email for a Stephen Gilligan course to be taught in Taipei this year as Gilligan usually keeps his nose clean and doesn’t abuse his customers or the law but there it is, with photos and Chinese translation of his seminar advertising text). A few months ago, a major newspaper here ran a number of editorials criticising spam practices by a few NGH trainers saying they often promise much more than they deliver. Of course, any trainer wants to get the word out so they can increase their student base but there’s a line between junk email sent to anyone and everyone which is invasive and misleading (some of it is just out and out lies) and targeted marketing. We want to increase market share and earn a livelihood as trainers and so we do want to get that word out (I know, I want as many folks as possible who can reasonably benefit from my own training to sign up for my upcoming course) but we also should want to stay within the bounds of acceptable and ethical marketing practices. The complaints against Royle are obviously legitimate in that he is misleading and encouraging folks to manipulate their practice to “get around” the law rather than abide by it.
