ASA Adjudication on MyJobGroup Ltd

Ad

Banners, hanging from street furniture, stated “THERE’S ALWAYS A BETTER JOB MyBristolJobs.co.uk 1000’S of LIVE Jobs online!”.

Issue

The complainant challenged whether the claim "1000S of LIVE Jobs online" was misleading and whether it could be substantiated.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

MyJobGroup said they specialised in online recruitment with over 100 websites covering most of the UK.  The sites were essentially one large national site with a local front page that highlighted recruiters in that area.  They said the current campaign began in July 2008 and was due to come down or be changed in July 2009.  At the time it began, the Bristol site carried 1,419 jobs for the Bristol region alone, and they had expected that that number would increase due to extensive marketing campaigns.  They pointed out that every page on their sites had links to many other sites covering the country, therefore giving access to over 20,000 jobs posted across the UK.  They maintained that many job seekers would be willing to travel or relocate to find the perfect job, especially those in a university city such as Bristol.  MyJobGroup said there were between 200 and 300 jobs in the Bristol region in February 2009, with the decrease being a direct result of the current difficult economic climate across the UK.  They pointed out, however, that a job seeker viewing the MyBristolJobs site could still find over 14,000 vacancies across the group.  They offered to send reports from their weblogs to confirm the figures.  

They asserted that the campaign had been placed in good faith and comprised three separate statements: "There's always a better job" which was the strapline they used on all marketing; "MyBristolJobs.co.uk" to promote the local part of the site and the branding, and "1000's of Live Jobs online", which they said had been accessible at all times from their Bristol site.  They said they would welcome any advice for future campaigns if there was a belief that they could be misinterpreted.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted, at the time the campaign began, over 1000 jobs were posted on the MyBristolJobs.co.uk website.  We also noted, as a result of the economic downturn, significantly fewer jobs were now appearing but that MyJobGroup felt the claim was still accurate because thousands of jobs across the UK could be accessed via links from the local site.  We considered, however, that readers would infer from the claim "1000s of LIVE Jobs online", which appeared alongside the web address "MyBristolJobs.co.uk", that they would be able to find thousands of job vacancies in the Bristol region.  Because it applied only to the number of jobs nationwide, we concluded that the claim was likely to mislead.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation) and 7.1 (Truthfulness).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)