ASA Adjudication on Caversham Finance Ltd

Ad

A TV ad, for BrightHouse electrical and household retailers, featured a young mother who was shown loading up her washing machine. She stated "At BrightHouse, they let me pay weekly for the things I need so at least my money doesn't get into a mess." On-screen text stated "pay weekly". A second female character, who was watching TV with friends, stated "Getting an LCD TV from BrightHouse was easy because there's no scary credit checks." On-screen text stated "no credit checks". A third female character was shown sitting on the sofa with her two children. She stated "Affording a sofa from BrightHouse wasn't a problem. It's relaxing that's difficult!". A voiceover stated "At BrightHouse, you can pay weekly." On-screen text stated "29.9%APR typical...". The voiceover continued "There's no credit checks and loads of top quality brands and products to choose from. So whatever you want for your house, you could afford it with BrightHouse. Your weekly payment store!".

Issue

One viewer challenged whether the ad was misleading by failing to make clear the restrictions to the credit offer.  He understood that customers could only buy items on credit, without a credit check, and pay off the balance weekly if they lived within a certain radius of a BrightHouse store.

BCAP TV Code

Response

BrightHouse explained that they had 178 stores throughout the UK and eight service centres which provided a delivery service and after sales and repairs.  They said each service centre supported a number of stores and had a geographical radius within which they would deliver.  Depending upon the proximity to its service centre, BrightHouse determined a service radius for each store.  They told the ASA that the service radius was usually between 30 and 45 minutes drive from the store and, beyond that catchment area, they were unable to achieve acceptable standards of delivery and after sales service.  BrightHouse added that the store service radius applied to all customers, irrespective of their method of payment.  They maintained that they carefully targeted their ads in such a way as to ensure that most viewers would be served by a store.  They explained that they did so by broadcasting only in ITV regions for Scotland, North and Central where they had 131 stores.  They therefore believed the vast majority of viewers would be served by a store.  BrightHouse said some enquiries inevitably came from viewers in areas not currently served by one of their stores and understood that those customers could be disappointed.  They reiterated that they took care to try to limit their advertising to regions where they had stores.  Brighthouse said they had not intended to mislead viewers and would take greater care with future ads.   

Clearcast said they had not been aware that geographical restrictions applied to the credit offer.  They said, had they known that, they would not have approved the ad in its current form.  Clearcast said they would ensure that the ad was amended with immediate effect.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted BrightHouse's comments and noted Clearcast was taking action to ensure that the ad was amended to make the nature of the restriction clear.  

We noted BrightHouse believed they carefully targeted their TV ads by broadcasting only in those regions where they had a large number of stores.  We nevertheless noted that viewers within those regions could still fall outside of the service catchment areas and would be unable to take advantage of the credit offer.  

We considered that viewers were likely to infer from the ad that anyone could buy items on credit, without a credit check, and pay off the balance weekly and that there were no restrictions to that offer.  We noted the Code stated that all important limitations and qualifications must be made clear and that limitations could include those on availability, particularly where failure to mention such conditions was likely to lead viewers to assume that the advertised offer was available on equal terms to all those who might see it.

We noted the offer was only available to those viewers who lived within a certain radius of a BrightHouse store and therefore understood that the offer was not available on equal terms to all viewers.  We concluded that the ad could therefore mislead by failing to make clear that geographical restrictions applied.  

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1 (Misleading advertising) and 5.2.3 (Qualifications).

Action

The ad must not be broadcast again in its current form.  We told BrightHouse to ensure that future ads made clear that a geographical restriction applied to the credit offer.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)