If you’ve received a letter from Health Canada about your clinic’s advertising, your first reaction may be: What did we do wrong, and how serious is this?
Before you start deleting content or rewriting your entire website, figure out exactly what Health Canada is asking you to address.
Medical aesthetics and wellness practices operate in a complicated advertising environment. The marketing tactics that are completely normal in most industries, talking about product benefits, showing results, sharing testimonials or encouraging someone to book, can become compliance issues when prescription drugs, medical devices or regulated health services are involved.
That means a Health Canada letter doesn’t necessarily mean your clinic was deliberately doing something wrong.
But it does mean you should take the concern seriously, understand what has been flagged and respond appropriately.
Here’s where to start.
First, understand what the letter is actually asking you to do
Not every Health Canada communication is the same, so read the letter carefully before making changes.
What content does it reference?
Is Health Canada concerned about a particular advertisement, social media post, treatment page or claim?
Does the letter identify a specific regulation or advertising requirement?
Are you being asked to remove or revise something?
Is there a deadline for responding or taking action?
Those details matter.
It can be tempting to see “Health Canada” at the top of a letter and immediately assume the worst. Instead, focus first on the specific concern being raised and the action being requested.
That gives you something concrete to work with.
What to do after receiving a Health Canada advertising letter
1. Note any deadlines
If the letter asks you to respond or make changes by a certain date, record that deadline immediately and make sure everyone involved knows about it.
You don't want a manageable advertising issue becoming more complicated because the correspondence wasn't dealt with promptly.
2. Save the marketing that was flagged
Before changing anything, keep a record of the original content.
Save screenshots or copies of the ads, website pages, social posts, landing pages or other marketing referenced in the letter.
This gives you a clear record of what was live when the concern was raised and makes it much easier to review exactly what may have caused the issue.
3. Identify the specific compliance concern
Now look closely at what Health Canada has actually flagged.
The problem may be narrower than you initially think.
For medical aesthetics and wellness practices, common advertising concerns can involve prescription drug advertising, treatment claims, before-and-after content, testimonials, promotional language or the relationship between an advertisement and the page it links to.
Understanding the underlying issue matters because the same problem may appear somewhere else in your marketing.
If a treatment claim on one Instagram post has been flagged, for example, similar wording might also appear on your website or in your paid ads.
Fixing one post without identifying the underlying issue doesn't necessarily solve the bigger problem.
4. Tell whoever manages your marketing
If an employee, freelancer or marketing agency manages your website, advertising or social media, bring them into the conversation.
They need to understand what has been flagged because they may need to review related content and make changes across multiple platforms.
This is also a good time to make sure everyone creating content for the clinic understands the advertising restriction involved. Otherwise, the same issue can easily reappear in future marketing.
What not to do when you receive a letter
There are also a few things I wouldn't recommend doing immediately.
Don't ignore it. If Health Canada is asking you to take action or provide a response, deal with it within the timeframe provided.
Don't immediately delete everything. Preserve a copy of the content first and understand what has actually been identified before making broad changes.
Don't assume the single item mentioned in the letter is the only issue. If the same marketing approach has been used elsewhere, it's worth reviewing the rest of your advertising.
Don't send a defensive response before you understand the concern. Gather the information you need first so that any response you provide is considered and factual.
And importantly, don't assume that because other clinics are doing the same thing, it must be allowed.
Medical aesthetics is an extremely competitive industry, and non-compliant marketing can become normalized when clinics repeatedly see competitors using the same tactics.
Popularity isn't the same thing as compliance.
Why was my clinic's advertising flagged?
There isn't one single answer.
Health Canada advertising requirements depend on what is being advertised, the type of product involved and the overall context of the marketing.
Some of the areas we look at when reviewing medical aesthetics and wellness marketing include:
- Prescription drug names being used alongside benefits or treatment claims
- Before-and-after content associated with prescription products
- Testimonials that communicate product effects or outcomes
- Claims such as “safe,” “clinically proven” or “guaranteed”
- References to FDA approval in Canadian marketing
- Claims involving certain diseases or health conditions
- Paid ads and the landing pages they send people to
- Social media collaborations, practitioner posts and other content associated with the clinic
We’ve written a separate guide explaining these issues in more detail: Health Canada Is Contacting Med Spas Across Canada. Here’s What They’re Flagging.
The important thing after receiving a letter isn't just finding the sentence Health Canada didn't like.
It's understanding why it was a problem.
Once you understand that, you can look for the same issue throughout the rest of your marketing and reduce the chance of repeating it.
Do I need a lawyer after receiving a Health Canada letter?
Not necessarily, but sometimes you may.
This is where it's important to distinguish between a marketing compliance review and legal or regulatory advice.
A marketing compliance audit can review your website, advertising, social media and other marketing materials for potential compliance concerns. We can identify problematic marketing patterns, explain why we're concerned about them and recommend changes.
That is different from providing legal advice or formally representing your clinic in a regulatory matter.
If the correspondence involves a more serious enforcement matter, potential penalties, a formal proceeding or anything else that requires legal interpretation or representation, you should speak with qualified legal or regulatory counsel.
We don't believe a marketing agency should pretend to be your lawyer.
Our role is to help you understand and correct the marketing side of the problem, and tell you when the issue appears to extend beyond that.
Should I only fix the advertising Health Canada mentioned?
This is where I would encourage clinics to think a little bigger.
If Health Canada identifies one non-compliant Botox post, for example, and your clinic has published 30 posts using essentially the same approach, correcting only the one identified in the letter misses the underlying problem.
The same applies to websites.
A claim might appear on a treatment page, homepage, blog article, landing page and in your Google Ads. If you only change the page mentioned in the letter, the same issue may still exist elsewhere.
That's why we recommend using the letter as the starting point for a broader marketing review.
Identify what was flagged.
Understand why.
Then look for the same pattern everywhere else.
What if I haven't received a Health Canada letter?
This is actually the better time to review your advertising.
You don't need to wait until someone raises a concern to find out whether your marketing follows the applicable advertising requirements.
If your clinic offers prescription injectables, medical devices, medical weight management, hormone services or other regulated treatments, a proactive review can identify potential problems before you're responding to a letter.
It can also give your marketing team clearer boundaries going forward.
Compliance shouldn't mean becoming afraid to market your clinic.
It means understanding where the boundaries are so you can create compelling marketing within them.
If you received a Health Canada letter, start with the letter
You don't need to guess what Health Canada might be concerned about.
Start with what they've actually sent you.
Read the concern carefully. Preserve the advertising involved. Identify the underlying marketing issue. Then determine whether that same issue appears elsewhere across your website, advertising and social media.
If you're not sure what you're looking at, that's where we can help.
Healing Path Marketing offers a free medical aesthetics marketing compliance audit. If you've received a Health Canada advertising letter, you can send it to us along with the marketing that was flagged.
We'll review the marketing concerns, look for similar issues across your advertising and give you a plain-language report outlining what we believe needs attention and what we recommend addressing first.
If we believe the situation requires legal or regulatory counsel rather than marketing support, we'll tell you that too.
Get your free marketing compliance audit.
This article provides general marketing compliance information and is not legal advice or regulatory approval. If you've received correspondence from Health Canada or another regulator, the appropriate response depends on the specifics of your situation. A Healing Path marketing compliance audit reviews marketing and advertising; it is not a substitute for qualified legal or regulatory counsel.
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