ASA Adjudication on Dennis Publishing Ltd

Ad

An ad, in the April edition of Auto Express magazine, was headlined "FREE PAIR OF BTCC TICKETS". The ad stated "Auto Express is offering a FREE pair of tickets to any 2007 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race day when you claim 6 trial issues WORTH £50". An attached coupon stated "Please allow 28 days for delivery". The small print stated "Gift subject to availability. Dennis Publishing reserve the right to replace the gift shown with one of equal or greater value".

Issue

The complainant, who entered the promotion but did not receive a pair of British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) tickets and instead was offered four posters, challenged:

1. the availability of the offer; and

2. whether the posters were a substitute of equivalent quality and price.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

1. Dennis Publishing said the promotion ran concurrently in their magazines Auto Express and Evo. They said they had obtained 350 pairs of tickets to be used in the promotion and allocated 200 to Evo and 150 to Auto Express. Dennis Publishing said they used other promotions run through their magazines to estimate potential demand for the BTCC tickets promotion. They said the Auto Express promotion with the highest response had been for a car cleaning kit worth £28 and the Evo promotion with the highest response had been for a free calendar. They had considered, however, that the response to the BTCC tickets promotion would be lower than the response to those promotions, especially because the editorial coverage of motor racing in the magazines was relatively low. They had therefore based their estimate of demand for BTCC tickets on the average response rate to their promotions and added a contingency number of tickets, which equated to 42% of their forecast figure. Dennis Publishing accepted, however, that the response to the promotion was nearly three times their estimate.

Dennis Publishing said they had attempted to obtain further tickets but were unable to do so because the BTCC had already allocated the remaining tickets. They pointed out that the ad stated clearly "Gift subject to availability. Dennis Publishing reserve the right to replace the gift shown with one of equal or greater value." They said they subsequently looked for alternative incentives that could be dispatched quickly to avoid disappointment. Dennis Publishing said the shortfall was made up with several different gifts, one of which was the set of prints the complainant received. They also pointed out that they offered to cancel the subscriptions of consumers who were dissatisfied with the substitutes.

2. Dennis publishing said the posters received by the complainant were from their photograph print shop and were worth a minimum of £17.99. They pointed out that affected consumers received three of the prints.

Assessment

1. Upheld

The ASA noted Dennis Publishings efforts to estimate demand. However, we noted they had predicted that the response would be considerably lower than that they had received for the car cleaning kit and the calendar, which were much lower value items. We therefore considered that Dennis Publishing had not made a reasonable estimate of the likely response and had disappointed over 200 respondents. We concluded that the ad was in breach of the Code.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness), 27.4 (Sales Promotion Rules), 30.1, 30.2, 30.3, (Availability) and 31.1 (Administration).

2. Not upheld

We noted the Auto Express online print shop verified the price of the prints Dennis Publishing sent as substitutes for the BTCC tickets. We considered that Dennis Publishing had substantiated the equivalent value of the substitutes they sent to those consumers who did not receive the BTCC tickets.

On this point, we investigated the ad under CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness), 27.4 (Sales Promotion Rules), 30.4 (Availability) and 31.1 (Administration) but did not find it in breach.

Action

We told Dennis Publishing to ensure that they took greater care in future when administering similar promotions.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)