ASA Adjudication on Carl Kammerling International Ltd

Ad

Two magazine ads for Carl Kammerling International Ltd (CKI) 'Sabretooth' first fix and second fix saws. a. the first magazine ad was headlined "Sabretooth Outperforms The Best" and text stated "Introducing an outstanding new range of handsaws designed for the professional". The ad claimed "We were determined to set new standards in cutting ability both in initial speed of cut and also retained sharpness. The result is the new C.K Sabretooth first fix and second fix saws." and "The C.K Sabretooth came out top on initial strokes and really proved top of the class in retained sharpness". b. the second magazine ad, that looked like an article, contained the headline "See Your Sales Saw". The ad claimed "These groundbreaking saws are the sharpest handsaw tools on the market, outperforming all other leading brands in terms of cutting speed. To verify their cutting ability C.K tools' Sabretooth Saws were independently tested by the Cutlery Allied Trades Research Association (CATRA), a body for testing knives, tools and flatware ... the extensive tests showed the Sabretooth range coming top in a test of longevity and was significantly in the lead in terms of initial sharpness against other leading competitors".

Issue

Irwin Industrial Tools Ltd challenged whether:

1. the claim in ad (a) that CKI's Sabretooth saws "came out top on initial strokes and really proved top of the class in retained sharpness" could be substantiated; and

2. the claim in ad (b) that the tests carried out by CATRA "showed the Sabretooth range coming top in a test of longevity and was significantly in the lead in terms of initial sharpness against other leading competitors" was misleading because they had the same tests carried out by CATRA and believed the results were different to those published by CKI.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

CKI said that, before launching the Sabretooth Saw, they had tests conducted by the independent testing company CATRA on the first fix saw only. They said those tests showed that their product outperformed the competition. They said the saws were tested under the name TRT Fine Line Technology because, at the time of testing, they had not defined the products name. CKI said that, because the test results showed benefits over the competition, the advertising campaign was based upon that test data. They said that, as both saws were made by the same manufacturer, they assumed that the second fix saws were of the same quality and delivered the same performance as the first fix saws.

CKI said they had now sent the second fix saws for independent testing and expected the results to show the same high performance for the second fix saw as for the first fix saw. They said they had suspended the sale of the second fix saw and suspended all advertising for the Sabretooth saw until those test results were known.

Assessment

1. & 2. Upheld

The ASA noted the CATRA test results provided by both the complainant and the advertiser. We acknowledged that, in both sets of tests, the Sabretooth first fix saw outperformed other leading brands in terms of initial cut strokes. However, we noted that CKI had not tested the second fix saw, and the tests conducted on behalf of the complainant showed the Sabretooth second fix saw did not outperform the other leading brands.

We welcomed the assurance from CKI that they had suspended the advertising of the Sabretooth saws until they had received the results of further testing on the second fix saw. Nevertheless, we considered that the claims "The C.K Sabretooth came out top on initial strokes and really proved top of the class in retained sharpness" in ad (a), and "The extensive tests showed the Sabretooth range coming top in a test of longevity and was significantly in the lead against other leading competitors" in ad (b) were misleading because they did not distinguish between the performance of the first fix saws and the second fix saws. We concluded that, because the independent tests performed by CATRA showed that the second fix saws did not perform as well as the first fix saws, the ads misleadingly implied that the Sabretooth range outperformed other leading competitors.

The ads breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness), and 19.1 (Other Comparisons).

Action

The ads should not appear again in their current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)