ASA Adjudication on Smart Shop TV Ltd

Ad

A presentation on Smart Shop TV opened with the caption "DEAL of the DAY". The item presented was a flat screen TV; on-screen boxed text stated "HITACHI full HD 42" … PLASMA TV 1080 resolution … start £1449.99 TODAY'S WOW PRICE £699". The presenter stated "… This is the latest offering from Hitachi. It's full HD and ready to go … the picture quality on this is amazing. Why? Because it's HD full. It's 1080i. If you're not sure what that means in resolution terms, well very simply all of Sky now transmit all their sport and many, many of their movies in 1080. This is HD in full; there is nothing over and above this. This is it in its full compliance … it is HD full in its full capacity … you've got a full 42" HD in full plasma from Hitachi here … it is the latest technology …". The presenter held up pages taken from a website that offered the same TV for sale; the price quoted on the print-out was £1449.99. He then held up a newspaper ad that showed the same TV on sale from another source at £2,300. He said "Now look at the price that we've got it. £699, we're giving you a free wall bracket worth £70 … you don't get any newer than this. It is 1080i resolution. All of Sky now transmit all of their sport, all of their movies … they're all HD now, think of the picture quality you're going to be getting with this … brought to you exclusively from Smart Shop TV …".

Issue

The complainant challenged the following claims:

1.  "This is the latest offering from Hitachi", "there is nothing over and above this" and "you don't get newer than this", because he understood that the TV had been available for over 12 months;

2.  "full HD" and "HD full", because he understood that it operated at 1080i, whereas full HD was 1080p;

3.  "All of Sky now transmit all of their sport [in HD]", because he believed some Sky sport was not broadcast in HD; and

4. "start £1449.99", because it implied a substantial saving for consumers purchasing the product from Smart Shop, when he understood that it represented the price of the item when it was first introduced to the market and not the price at which it was currently generally available.  

BCAP TV Code

Response

Smart Shop TV (Smart Shop) did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.

Assessment

1.  Upheld

The ASA noted the viewer's concern that the product had been available for over 12 months and was no longer the latest model as implied.  In the absence of any evidence to support the claims "This is the latest offering from Hitachi", "there is nothing over and above this" and "you don't get newer than this", we considered that they were unsubstantiated and likely to mislead.  

2.  Upheld

We understood that "full HD" related to products operating at 1080p as the complainant reported.  We concluded, because the TV on offer operated at 1080i, the claim "full HD" was not accurate in this instance and was, therefore, misleading.

3.  Upheld

We understood that Sky broadcast some sport in HD, but not all.  We therefore concluded that the claim "All of Sky now transmit all of their sport [in HD]" was misleading.

On points 1 - 3, the ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1 (Misleading advertising), 5.2.1 (Evidence) and 5.2.2 (Implications).  

4.  Upheld

We considered that viewers would infer from the claim "start £1449.99" that that was the price at which the product was generally sold.  Because we had not seen evidence to show that was the case, and in the absence of any explanation from Smart Shop, we concluded that the claim could mislead.  

On this point, the ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1 (Misleading advertising), 5.2.1 (Evidence) and 5.3.1 (Accurate pricing).

Action

The ad should not be broadcast again.

The ASA was concerned by Smart Shops breach of the CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code and also its failure to respond to the ASA's enquiries, a direct breach of its broadcasting licence.  The ASA has referred Smart Shop to Ofcom for consideration of a statutory sanction.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)