ASA Adjudication on Church & Dwight UK Ltd

Ad

A TV ad for a home pregnancy test featured a woman thinking "I wonder if I'm pregnant". A voice-over stated "First Response could tell you six days before your missed period. Trust First Response to tell you first". On-screen text stated "Always read leaflet. 62% could get accurate results 6 days before day of missed period (Day after period due)". A pack shot of the product was shown at the end of the ad. Text on the pack stated "TELLS YOU FIRST ... SIX DAYS EARLY".

Issue

SPD Swiss Precision Diagnostics GmbH challenged whether the ad was misleading because it did not make clear what was meant by "six days before your missed period". They believed viewers might interpret it to mean six days before the period was due, rather than six days before the day after the period was due. They considered the on-screen text confused rather than clarified the meaning.

BCAP TV Code

Response

Church & Dwight UK Ltd (C&D) said the ad had been amended in light of a previous ASA adjudication. They explained that the earlier version of the ad had made the claim "... it's possible to find out six days earlier than your missed period" alongside on-screen text that stated "62% could get results 5 days before expected period", but that the ASA considered that the references to "missed period" and "expected period" were contradictory and could be confusing for some viewers.

C&D said the current ad referred to the "day of the missed period" only, and they argued that the on-screen text, "62% could get accurate results 6 days before day of missed period (Day after period due)", clarified rather than contradicted the main claim. They said they believed the ad complied with the previous adjudication and was not ambiguous.

Clearcast said they believed the changes made to the on-screen text clearly communicated to the viewer that the claim "six days before your missed period" referred to the day after the period was due, and that therefore the ad was not misleading.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted that the ad had been amended as a result of a previous adjudication. We also noted that that adjudication concluded that the difference between the day the period was due and the day of the missed period might not be immediately clear to viewers, and that because some viewers might interpret the claim to mean that the product could tell them if they were pregnant six days before the date their period was due, when that was not the case, the ad was misleading.

We acknowledged that C&D had amended the ad to refer to the "day of the missed period" only. However, we considered that viewers might understand that if their period did not come on the day it was due that would be the day of the missed period, rather than the day after, and we therefore considered that the ad could still be interpreted to mean that the product could tell viewers if they were pregnant six days before the date their period was due. We considered that that impression was reinforced by the text "TELLS YOU FIRST ... 6 DAYS EARLY" in the final pack shot. We noted that the on-screen text stated "... 6 days before day of missed period (Day after period due)". However, we did not consider that that went far enough to clarify the ambiguity of the phrase "missed period", and was likely to cause confusion for viewers about the performance of the product. We considered that the ad should have explained clearly what was meant by "missed period" and "day of missed period" so viewers could understand how early the product could be used. Because it did not we concluded that it was misleading.

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1.1 (Misleading advertising) and 5.2.2 (Implications).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told C&D if they wished to continue making the "SIX DAYS EARLY" claim they should explain clearly what was meant by "missed period" and "day of missed period".

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)