Cosmetic advertising is under fire: What agencies must know before September 2
On September 2, new guidelines for the lawful promotion of cosmetic services such as injectables, PRP treatments, thread lifts, and fillers, will take effect.
Alison Lee, director of advertising review and classification service ClearAds, explains what rules agencies and creators in the industry must be across in the next few weeks.
Australia’s $4.1 billion cosmetic injectables industry is in the midst of a marketing reckoning. With growth forecast to surge by more than 19% annually through to 2030, non-surgical aesthetic procedures are increasingly being promoted across social media, digital platforms, and influencer channels. Come September 2, advertising in this category will require much more than creative flair.
That’s the day new Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) guidelines take effect, providing greater clarity of what constitutes lawful promotion of cosmetic services such as injectables, PRP treatments, thread lifts, and fillers. These updates follow a year in which the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) requested the removal of nearly 13,500 non-compliant ads; a clear signal that enforcement is escalating across the board.
While these regulations are well known to health professionals, they’re still underappreciated within media and marketing circles. That’s a dangerous blind spot. Because under Australian law, anyone who is responsible for the promotion of prescription-only treatments, be it agencies, influencers or publishers could be in the frame.
A shifting landscape for agencies and creators
At ClearAds, we review thousands of ads, social posts, and influencer campaigns every month. What we’re seeing is a persistent gap between aesthetic sector compliance obligations and the current digital marketing playbook. This isn’t about deliberate misconduct, it’s largely a matter of industry practice outpacing regulatory understanding.
