This week’s rulings have been published. The following advertisers have been formally investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
Rulings for: 22 November 2017
- Amberley House Cottage Holidays Ltd – Not Upheld
A website for UpFront Reviews, www.upfrontreviews.com, seen on 7 July 2017, stated on a page titled “Accommodation Reviews” that the “Average rating” of properties included in the “Amberley House Cottage Holidays Group” portfolio was “4.6 OUT OF 5”. An individual prope…
- British Telecommunications plc – Upheld
A TV ad for BT, seen on 11 May 2017, advertised broadband packages. The voice-over stated, “The welcome discount on BT Unlimited Broadband has just got bigger. We’ll now give you a discount of over 30%”. Large text across the screen stated “BIGGER DISCOUNT” followed by “NOW OVER 30% DISCOUNT…
- Buy It Direct Ltd – Upheld
A website for Drones Direct, www.dronesdirect.co.uk, seen in September 2017, for a “DJI Goggles FPV Headset”, featured text that stated “Only £499.00 Save 12%”.
- Complete PT Solutions Ltd – Upheld
A post on the Facebook page for Complete PT Solutions, a personal training service company, dated 14 July 2017, stated “ [warning emoji] EDIT! Last entry will be 7pm tonight (21/07/17) we will then choose the winner, live, at 8pm! [warning emoji]. [exclamation mark emoji] DON’T MISS OUT [exclamation mark emoji]. WIN…
- Croftscope Ltd t/a BOCA – Upheld
An ad for BOCA organic toothpastes was seen in the Raconteur supplement which was included in the Times newspaper on 28 July 2017. The ad featured a black and white image of the body of a naked woman, who was wearing only a pair of strappy heels. The woman in the image was shown reclining in a chair and facing a win…
A TV ad for acupressure sleep aid company Goodnightsnoring.com was seen on 24 April 2017. The ad opened with a female presenter describing the “Good Night Ring” sleep aid. She said, “Hi there, I’d like to tell you about the recent Good Night Ring user trial which involved 136 couples. Let me give you some more amazi…
Claims on www.developingyourpotentialrec.org, in a tweet, and on recruitment websites www.monster.co.uk and www.totaljobs.com, seen in August and October 2017, promoted teaching assistant jobs:
a. Text on a page entitled “Job Search” from www.developingyourpotentialrec.org included several “Teaching Assistant” roles in various locations.
A page for a specific job in Liverpool stated, “Developing Your Potential Recruitment is seeking enthusiastic and committed candidates to join our agency that would welcome the potential opportunity to work in a classroom setting within schools in your area at all levels within the teaching sector. We are continuously working to build and maintain close partnerships with primary, secondary and SEN schools across the UK. We will canvas CV’s [sic] to schools within your area to maximise your chances of gaining supply/voluntary and long term teaching work”. It listed a number of “Teaching assistant role [sic] and responsibilities”. At the bottom of the page was a button stating “Apply for job”.
A page for a specific job in Leicestershire included the same text.
b. A tweet on the advertiser’s own page stated, “Check out these jobs! #careers”, and included a link to monster.co.uk.
c. A results page on www.monster.co.uk, which was linked to from ad (b), listed a number of teaching assistant jobs in various locations, showing a salary of “£12000 – £20000”. A page for a specific role in Slough included the same text as the specific ad pages in ad (a), and a button on the right-hand side stated, “Apply Now”, above text which stated, “Job Status/Type Full Time Permanent”.
d. A search results page on www.totaljobs.com listed a number of teaching assistant jobs in various locations. Text stated “£ Unspecified … Permanent”. Pages for specific roles in Hull and Leicester included the same text as the specific job pages in ad (a), and also included an “Apply” button at the bottom of the page, as well as a “Job ID” number, which was different for both jobs.
- Express EPOS Ltd t/a XEPOS – Upheld
An ad for XEPOS electronic point of sale (EPOS) software, seen on www.xepos.co.uk in August 2017, listed the product’s key features. Under a tab labelled “CLOUD”, text stated “Store all your data to the cloud for safe and quick storage. With XEPOS, all your data is stored on our secure cloud servers so you can acces…
- Health Lottery ELM Ltd – Upheld
A Facebook post for Health Lottery ELM Ltd, dated 22 January, stated “You know what they say five chances to win is better than one, that’s why we run five weekly draws! What’s more, each draw has a jackpot of up to £100K- that means that there is a potential half a million pounds up for grabs week in week out! … Up…
- HeroCorp – Upheld in part
Three ads for the customer acquisitions and marketing company HeroCorp, seen throughout December 2016:
a. The website www.herocorp.co.uk, under the heading “OUR NETWORK”, stated “HeroCorp’s network is comprised of Over [sic] 65 cities in Europe and more than 2500 sales and marketing professionals”. Under the heading “OUR PHILOSOPHY” the ad stated “125000 Approx. New customers, yearly”.
b. A tweet, @herocorpuk, posted 15 December 2016 stated “HeroCorp saved £6.7 million for UK residents in 2016 so far. #energyefficiency #Business”.
c. A job posting seen on LinkedIn stated “Entry Level Marketing Assistant … Immediate Start … Employment type … Full-time … Job function … Advertising, Human Resources, Public Relations”.
- Moresand Ltd t/a World Airfares – Upheld
An online listing for a business class flight from Manchester to Bangkok at 17:50 on 4 December 2017 on www.worldairfares.co.uk, seen on 21 May 2017, stated that the price of the flight was £1449.64. Below the listed price, the ad stated that there were 6 seats available.
- Official iPhone Unlock Ltd – Upheld
A website for Official iPhone Unlock, www.officialiphoneunlock.co.uk, seen in August 2017, included text on a web page, titled “iCloud Unlock”, stated “Find My iPhone includes a feature called Activation Lock that is designed to prevent anyone else from using an iPhone … if it’s ever lost or stolen … However, this a…
- Pernod Ricard UK Ltd – Upheld
A sponsored Facebook post by Absolut, a vodka brand, seen on 9 August 2017, featured a video of a group of young people sitting in a boat. On-screen text stated “ENJOY ABSOLUT RESPONSIBLY”.
A website for Pioneer Bathrooms, www.heatandplumb.com, seen on 2 August 2017, featured a banner which stated “USE CODE 5OFF5- SPEND £500 – GET 5% OFF WHEN YOU SPEND £500 on selected items”. A timer was shown which counted down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the offer ended.
- ProBack Clinics Surbiton – Upheld
A national press ad for ProBack Clinics, seen in the London Evening Standard on 12 June 2017, promoted the clinic’s shockwave treatment. Text stated “Shockwave treatment is a computerised alternative to manual manipulation where the machine is able to detect and correct spinal misalignments, break down scar tissue, …
- RB UK Commercial Ltd t/a Nurofen – Not Upheld
A TV ad for Nurofen, seen 24 July 2017, showed four brief clips that contrasted ‘good’ and ‘bad’ versions of the same experience, during which a voice-over stated, “Sometimes the choice is obvious. When it comes to headache relief choose Nurofen”. Small on-screen text stated “Nurofen 200mg tablet. Contains ibuprofen…
- Sixt Rent a Car Ltd – Upheld
An online display ad for Sixt, a vehicle rental company, seen on 29 May 2017, featured images which transitioned between images of various vehicles and displayed text which stated “from” and then “£X / per day”.
- The Law Society of England and Wales – Upheld
A web page on the Law Society website www.lawsociety.org.uk, seen in November 2016, describing the Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) accreditation, stated “All Law Society Conveyancing Quality Scheme firms go through rigorous examination and testing to demonstrate that they have a high level of knowledge, skil…
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Previous rulings: 15 November 2017