ASA Adjudication on Friends Provident Life and Pensions Ltd

Ad

A mailing, for Friends Provident, was contained in a rigid brown envelope that resembled a medical records folder. Bold text in red stated "X-RAY FILM PLEASE DO NOT BEND". Text in the bottom left corner of the envelope gave a reference number and a date which appeared to be handwritten. The reverse of the envelope featured small text that stated "If undelivered, please return to: Friends Provident ...". The envelope contained an X-ray photo of a pinned joint. Text at the top of the page stated "OUCH! I bet that hurts ... ". The reverse of the page showed a number of coins and a bank note. Text at the top of the page stated "OUCH! ... in more ways than one". Further text gave details of Friends Provident Income Protection and stated “Taking time off work due to accident or illness can be financially, as well as physically painful … Friends Provident Income Protection can help … And you won’t have to experience the pain twice”.

Issue

Three complainants challenged whether the:

1. nature of the mailing was likely to cause distress by masquerading as official medical records and

2. envelope made clear that it contained marketing material.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

1. & 2. Friends Provident Life and Pensions Ltd (Friends Provident) said the mailing was a new design concept that was issued to 10,000 customers as a test run.  They conceded that they had not fully appreciated the impact it could have on recipients who were waiting for medical results or whose family members were waiting for medical results.  Friends Provident acknowledged that the presentation of the envelope was such that it could have been mistaken for official medical records and accepted that the envelope should have made clear that it contained marketing material.  They told the ASA that they had withdrawn the mailing, had no plans to reuse it and had issued written apologies to those customers who had complained to them directly.  Friends Provident said they had revised their internal procedures and briefed their agency to avoid encountering a similar situation in the future.

Assessment

1. & 2. Upheld

The ASA noted Friends Provident's comments and welcomed their decision to withdraw the mailing and not to use it again.  We nevertheless considered that recipients were likely to infer that the mailing contained test results or other medical records from a hospital and the small text on the reverse of the envelope that made reference to Friends Provident was insufficient to correct that impression.  We were concerned that the approach had caused alarm to some recipients and had misled them to believe the envelope contained official medical records belonging to them or their loved ones.  We concluded that the envelope should have stated clearly that it contained marketing material to avoid giving a misleading impression of its contents and causing distress to recipients.

The mailing breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness), 9.1 (Fear and distress) and 22.1 (Identifiable marketing).

Action

We advised Friends Provident to contact the CAP Copy Advice team for guidance on the presentation of future mailings.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)