ASA Adjudication on William Reed Publishing Ltd

Ad

A magazine ad, for the Morning Advertiser, was headed "It's official! The Morning Advertiser is the pub trade's favourite". Text stated "The facts speak for themselves. The Morning Advertiser: Has the biggest and most qualified circulation in England and Wales within the food & drink/wine & spirit trade ABC market sector. 31,084* ABC Profile". Further text stated "The Publican's figures are NOT profiled or endorsed by the ABC".

Issue

CMP Information, publishers of the Publican, challenged whether:

1. the claim "The Morning Advertiser has the biggest and most qualified circulation in England and Wales within the food and drink/wine and spirit trade ABC market sector.  31,084" was misleading, because the figure was actually based on the whole of the UK;

2. the same claim was misleading and an unfair comparison, especially because the figure was based on data from three months, rather than a whole year, which was the standard reporting period for ABC figures; and

3. the claim "The Publican's figures are NOT profiled or endorsed by the ABC" was misleading and could be substantiated, because the Publican was endorsed by the ABC and had a full audit available on the ABC website.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

1. The Morning Advertiser said the figure was incorrect because they had not deducted the 147 copies they sent to Scotland and Northern Ireland; they acknowledged that they should have deducted those copies from the total.  However, they maintained that those copies were immaterial to the claim, because they represented less than 0.5% of the total and even when they were deducted, that did not alter the truth of the claim that the Morning Advertiser had the biggest and most qualified circulation in England & Wales.  

2.  The Morning Advertiser said they accepted that the standard reporting period for the ABC figures was one year.  However, they said their geographic data was available only for a three month period and they believed they were entitled to report their ABC figures when they were published.  They said it was clearly stated in the ad that they had used the figures in their ABC certificate for 1 August to 31 October.  They said they were happy to include the 12-month figure as well in their future ads but said those figures still supported their statement that the Morning Advertiser had a bigger circulation in England and Wales.  

3. The Morning Advertiser said the Publican had already raised the issue with them and as a result they had amended their subsequent ads to state "our competitor's figures are not profiled by the ABC".  They said that accurately reflected that The Publican did not have an ABC Profile (demographic) certificate, but avoided the possibility of the incorrect implication that the Publican was not ABC registered with a standard ABC certificate.

Assessment

1. Upheld

The ASA understood from the Audit Bureau of Circulations Ltd (ABC) that the Morning Advertisers profile certificate provided a breakdown for England and Wales but the figure of 31,804 quoted in the ad included circulation figures for Scotland, Northern Ireland and other countries. We noted the circulation figures for Scotland, Northern Ireland and other countries made up only a small percentage of the Morning Advertisers total circulation.  We also noted the Publican had not opted to receive a profile certificate from ABC and therefore did not have published figures which showed the circulation in England and Wales specifically.   We noted the Morning Advertiser could not therefore directly compare their circulation figures for England and Wales with the Publicans figures for the same areas and we considered that the claim "biggest and most qualified circulation in England and Wales" suggested those figures had been measured and compared directly against their competitors.  Because it was not possible for them to make that comparison and because the claim quoted a circulation figure which related to the whole of the UK and other countries rather than England and Wales specifically, we concluded it was likely to mislead.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clause 7.1 (Truthfulness).

2. Upheld

We noted geographic data for the Morning Advertisers circulation had been available for a three-month period only and the ad made clear that the claim was based on figures from 1 August to 31 October.  We understood from ABC that the mandatory reporting periods for business magazine titles was 12 months.  However, we also understood that a publisher could opt to report a later three-month period, which was still an average figure of that period.  We noted the Publican did not report their circulation figures for the period from 1 August to 31 October 2006.

We noted the Publicans average circulation for ABCs standard reporting period (from July 2005 to June 2006) was 31,903 and we noted the Morning Advertisers circulation for the same period was 30,202.   We noted the Morning Advertiser was not able to directly compare their circulation figures for the period between 1 August and 31 October, because the Publican did not report those figures.  However, we considered that the claim should have been based on a comparison of figures over the same period.   We noted, nevertheless, that the Publicans average circulation for the previous 12-month period was higher than the Morning Advertisers figure quoted in the ad.  We also noted from the ABC that they did not assess "qualified" circulation but that they did measure "controlled" circulation, which meant the recipients of a magazine had met a set of criteria established by the publishers (for example landlords, licensees or managers in the licensed on-trade sector within pubs).  We noted the Publican had a controlled circulation of 28,055 for the period July 2005 to June 2006 whereas the Morning Advertisers controlled circulation for the same period was 27,694.  We also noted the Morning Advertisers controlled circulation for the period 1 August to 31 October 2006 was 27,676, which was still lower than the Publicans average controlled circulation for the standard reporting period.

Although we noted the basis of the figures was quoted in the ad we considered that, because the Publican did not report their figures for the period used as the basis of the claim and it was therefore based on a comparison of circulation over two different time periods, it was a misleading and unfair comparison.  Furthermore, because the Publicans total and controlled circulation figures had been higher on average than the Morning Advertisers, both for the ABCs standard 12-month reporting period, and for the period from 1 August to 31 October 2006, we considered that the claim "biggest and most qualified circulation" was misleading.  

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clause 3.1 (Substantiation) 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 19.1 (Other comparisons).

3. Upheld

We noted the Morning Advertiser had amended their ads to remove the claim that the Publican was not endorsed by the ABC.  We understood from ABC that they did not strictly "endorse" titles, but noted the claim was intended to refer to the auditing of their circulation figures.  Although we noted the Publicans circulation certificate was not profiled demographically, we noted the Publican was registered and audited by ABC.  We therefore concluded that the claim "The Publican figures are NOT ... endorsed by the ABC" was misleading and unsubstantiated.  We welcomed the Morning Advertisers amendment of their subsequent ads.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) 18.1 and 18.3 (Comparisons with identified competitors and/or their products).  

Action

We told the Morning Advertiser to ensure that they accurately quoted and compared ABC figures in future and we advised them to seek guidance from the CAP Copy Advice team on their future advertising.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)