ASA Adjudication on Tesco Stores Ltd

Ad

A TV ad, for Tesco, included a voice-over that stated "At Tesco, we compare the price of the things you actually put in your shopping basket. You know, every day things like eggs, milk, chicken, tomatoes and broccoli. And when we checked on Monday, over one million of these real baskets were cheaper at Tesco. And Asda, well you can see the results for yourself. Real baskets at Tesco … ". Images of two stacks of baskets were shown; one was labelled "1,025,000 baskets cheaper" and the other "654,000 baskets cheaper".

Text on screen stated "Based on a 10% sample of Clubcard transactions in store 16/03 comparing Asda prices online 16/03. Closest match applied. Includes promotions. Excludes multibuys, non-matches, Express, selected Metro. To verify contact Tesco Price EN8 9SL or www.tesco.com. Clubcard exclusions apply … ".

Issue

Direct Marketing Solutions Ltd challenged whether the ad misleadingly implied that a typical basket of every day items at Tesco was cheaper than an equivalent basket at Asda. They believed the sampling method used was likely to affect the results of the comparison in favour of Tesco.

BCAP TV Code

Response

Tesco Stores Ltd (Tesco) said that the ad did not imply the baskets shown were typical of the every day items that might be bought by a consumer; it clearly stated that they were "real baskets".  It additionally stated the number of baskets that would have been cheaper in each store and therefore the implication could not have been that the baskets shown were typical baskets.  The comparison was also not a trolley comparison, in the traditional sense, or an over-simplified line-by-line price comparison, which inevitably produced unreal results, but was based on real baskets, where each was different.  

They said the sample they used was entirely random and could not be targeted. It was completely anonymous and was not biased by geography or socio-economic group.  Tesco said it was generally accepted that advertising sought to present companies in the most favourable light. Price comparison ads were, by their very nature, highly biased in favour of the advertiser.  However, the claim was very clearly confined to what customers bought at Tesco on a particular date; that claim was true and verifiable.  The sample was a fair and truly representative selection of Tesco customers.  They said the key strength of the campaign was that, by comparing the prices of products that customers actually bought, it was much more representative than price comparisons based on a small and highly selective number of products.  The "real baskets" advertising sought to avoid the problems related to other price comparisons by openly and transparently comparing the items customers actually bought. Tesco said they were confident that the claim about the number of baskets that were cheaper at Tesco was accurate and that consumers would not be misled by it.     

Clearcast said they were assured by Tesco that the sampling method used to create the figures in the ad was sound and unbiased.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA noted the ad stated "we compare the prices of the things you actually put in your shopping basket ... " and twice referred to "real baskets", which we considered made clear that the comparison was not of a typical basket of every day items.  We noted that the complainant believed that customers were predisposed to buying products in a store if they were made aware that those products were cheaper than in competitors stores. He stated that in-store signage exacerbated that effect and was concerned it meant that, by sampling their own customers baskets, the result would inevitably be biased in favour of Tesco even if it was true that a competitor had an equal number of other cheaper products.  

We noted a previous ASA adjudication identified some problems with the comparison methods used by Tesco for the purposes of the ad.  In respect of the complainants concerns, however, we considered that viewers were unlikely to be misled. They would understand that a number of factors might affect consumer behaviour and that samples based on real purchases would inevitably take into account personal choices as well as any factors that particularly affected Tescos own customers, including, for example, in-store signage pointing out cheaper products.  

Because consumers were likely to understand that various factors that might influence consumer behaviour could affect a sample of "real baskets", and the ad made clear that the comparison was based on "real baskets", we considered viewers were unlikely to interpret it as suggesting that a typical basket of every day items at Tesco was cheaper than an equivalent basket at Asda.  We concluded that the ad was not misleading.  

We investigated the ad under CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1.1 and 5.1.3 (Misleading advertising) but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)