ASA Adjudication on Blakefield LLP

Ad

A national press ad, for a telescope from Windsor Products, was headlined "High Powered Telescope SAVE £120" and stated "Order yours today and save £120.00 on the normal price - WAS £199.95 - NOW £79.95 ...".

Issue

One complainant challenged whether the claimed "normal price" of "£199.95" was genuine and whether the claim "SAVE £120" could be substantiated.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Windsor Products said they used to sell the telescope for £199.95 and submitted a leaflet and order form, which included photographs of the same product and stated that the price was £199.95.  They also submitted a spreadsheet showing the addresses of customers who had ordered the product at that price.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA considered that readers would expect from the ad that the telescope was generally sold at £199.95 and that the price had applied for a reasonable period of time before the ad appeared.  However, we found several national press ads placed by Windsor Products, showing that they had been offering the product at £79.95 for almost six months before the ad seen by the complainant appeared.  Windsor Products did not confirm the most recent date when they sold the telescope at £199.95 or the period of time for which they had applied that price to the product, although the leaflet they submitted, which featured the £199.95 price, stated " ... Windsor Products 2006 ...", which we considered indicated that the product had not been sold at that price for over two years before the ad appeared.  In addition, Windsor Products did not provide evidence that any other retailer sold the product for £199.95.  We concluded that Windsor Products had not substantiated that the claimed "normal price" of "£199.95" was genuine or that readers could "SAVE £120", and the ad was therefore likely to mislead.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 and 7.2 (Truthfulness) and 15.5 (Prices).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)