ASA Adjudication on Ideal Shopping Direct plc

Ad

A teleshopping ad promoted the Craft Studio Four Seasons CD Rom set with graphics program. Three presenters, Diane, Shaun and Steph showed examples of the sort of cards and boxes that could be made with the program and demonstrated how some of the applications within the program worked. Steph held up examples of different cards to the camera and stated "You've got the ability to make inserts, sized inserts ... You're getting over nine thousand images to do different designs with ... Our crafters have made these for us ... they are actually the people that have road tested these CDs for you ... It's going to work for you to make your own background, borders, toppers ... " After Steph had highlighted the different range of designs Shaun stated "it's not complicated, believe me I've seen it. You can actually be incredibly creative ... ".

Diane began the demonstration of how the graphics program worked. She said " ... We've got alphabets and numbers, you can bring them on individually" the shot cut to a close-up of the screen that showed the task menu. Diane stated "We've got some frames, these are the autumn ones ... " and dragged a frame from the left-hand panel into the main part of the computer screen. "We've got icons, icons are the small images that you're going to use for tilings for making your backgrounds and your borders, we've got butterflies as well ...". As Diane said this some of the icons appeared in the frame. She continued "We've got big pictures ... " and dragged a large image of a tree into the frame. "We've got inserts, you've got your full insert there, you've got your page layouts there to show you where to pop your text, you've got projects. We've got finished card projects on these CDs ... we've got all sorts ... we've got tiles to make your backgrounds ... now if I just clear that screen ... We'll go for the little butterfly there, couple of clicks ... did you want a border? ... ". A series of butterflies appeared on the screen. Shaun said "Is that all you do to get a border? … ”. Steph said "The way that this came about was that we wanted a graphics programme that was easy to use ... ". Shaun said "Show me more", Diane dragged a photograph of a woman holding a baby onto the main page and enlarged it. She dragged a pink frame onto the main page and rotated it clockwise so that it framed that image. She added text to the image.

One of the crafters responsible for creating the cards used in the demonstration was interviewed on air. Steph asked "What was the first thing you thought when you got the CDs and you started working with it?" The crafter replied "It's just so simple. Really really easy ... It's just drag and drop, few buttons and I'm away ... ".

Issue

The viewer challenged whether the ad was misleading, because although it implied the product was easy to use, they believed the graphics program suffered from a number of faults and did not work as demonstrated.

BCAP TV Code

Response

Ideal Shopping Direct plc (Ideal Shopping) said the CD Rom worked as demonstrated during the ad, and sent a copy of the "Four Seasons My Craft Studio" CD Rom set. They believed the definition of whether a product was easy to use was a subjective matter and depended to some degree on the user's experience of a PC-based product; however, they had ensured a "Help" function and the supplier's helpline number had been included in the CD Rom set. They said they had sold 5900 "My Craft Studio" CD Roms after the ad was broadcast on 5 and 6 February 2008 and that 205 of those had been returned for a refund. They said that was in line with their normal return rate of between 3 and 5%. They emphasised that the refund they offered was not limited to faulty products and was a no-questions-asked money back guarantee. They said that if the product had been faulty they would have expected a much higher return rate.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA tested the CD Roms sent by Ideal World against the demonstration shown in the ad. We noted that the drag and drop function worked as demonstrated, as did the rotation of the frame, the creation of a border and background through the tile function and the addition of text to the image. We considered that ease of use of a product was a subjective matter and, although we noted there were some functions within the graphics program that required a work-around, for example rotating then resizing part of the image, or dragging and dropping an image from the internet, we considered that the demonstration did not mislead viewers as to the capabilities of "My Craft Studio".  We concluded that the product worked as demonstrated and the sample cards were an accurate reflection of what consumers could expect to create with the "My Craft Studio" CD Rom set.  

We investigated the ad under CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1 (Misleading advertising), 5.2.1 (Evidence), 5.2.2 (Implications) and 11.2.2 (Distance selling) but did not find it in breach.

Action

No action necessary.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)