ASA Adjudication on Optimax Laser Eye Clinics

Ad

A TV ad, for Optimax laser eye surgery, in which the voice-over stated "Imagine your life without glass lenses from £395 per eye. Have your treatment in the next month, pay nothing until next year and then take two years interest free credit". On-screen text stated "Pay nothing until 2009 Then 2 Years Interest Free Credit".

Issue

Four viewers, who were all told that their level of  treatment did not qualify for the deferred payment offer, challenged whether the ad was misleading, because it did not make clear that restrictions applied to the offer.

BCAP TV Code

Response

Optimax Laser Eye Clinics (Optimax) said it was originally their policy to offer the "pay nothing until 2009" terms without restrictions to all viewers who responded to their TV ad.  They said the promotion appeared on TV only and, unless a customer identified that they were responding to the TV ad, Optimax staff would not have told customers that the offer was available.  They said it seemed that the complainants had been misinformed by Optimax staff and apologised for that error.

Optimax said approximately half of the patients who had taken up the "pay nothing until next year offer" had not had the most expensive type of treatment, which the complainants had been told was necessary to qualify for the offer. They said they had now withdrawn their TV ad and changed their policy on the offer.  They said in future the "pay nothing until next year" offer would be restricted to Intralase treatments but it would not be necessary for customers to quote the TV ad.  They said they had amended the ad to make the restrictions of the offer clear in both the voice-over and on-screen text.

Clearcast said they had received an assurance from Optimax that anyone could receive the "pay nothing until next year" offer and that it applied to all treatments.  They said they had therefore cleared the ad on that basis.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted Optimax had intended the "pay nothing until next year" to be offered without restrictions but that customers were required to quote the TV ad to obtain it.  We were concerned, however, that all four complainants had been told that the offer was available only for the most expensive type of treatment, even when in some instances they had referred to the offer in the ad.  We noted one complainant had even received a letter from Optimax stating that the offer was available only to those who took the most expensive treatment.   We noted Optimax had apologised for the confusion caused by the offer and had subsequently withdrawn the ad.

We noted the ad stated "imagine your life without glass lenses from £395 per eye", followed by "have your treatment in the next month, pay nothing until next year and then take two years interest free credit" and we considered that viewers were likely to understand that it was possible to obtain the offer for any treatment costing from £395.  We noted the ad did not include any reference to consumers having to quote the TV ad or any qualification to suggest that only a certain type of treatment qualified for the offer.  We considered that because the ad did not make clear the restrictions relating to the offer, it was misleading.

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

Action

We welcomed Optimaxs action to withdraw the ad and ensure that the restrictions on the latest offer were made clear.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)