ASA Adjudication on Air Ambulance Service (Trading Co) Ltd

Ad

A circular, for the Air Ambulance Service (Trading Co) Ltd (AAS), featured a photo of a helicopter. Text stated "AIR AMBULANCE SERVICE" while smaller text immediately below stated "(Trading Co) Ltd, Registered Company Number XXX (commercial collections)". The company's website address and a helicopter logo also featured; text beneath the logo stated "AIR AMBULANCE".

Text continued "URGENT We need clean, quality, re-usable Clothing, Kids [sic] Clothes ... Your unwanted items are reused or recycled, they are fairly traded for profit in the UK & around the World. The environment benefits, our company and many people also benefit because of your generosity ... CLOTHING COLLECTION ...". A perforated strip at the bottom of the circular stated "Receive an Air Ambulance Service 'MEMBERSHIP CARD' and an Information Pack on members benefits. Call 0907 XXX". Small print gave call cost information and stated "Texts service costs £5 plus a standard network charged message ... £2 from text service goes directly to Air Ambulance Service".

Issue

1. The complainant challenged whether the circular misleadingly implied that AAS were raising money on behalf of official air ambulance services.

2. The ASA challenged whether the claim "... £2 from text service goes directly to Air Ambulance Service" misleadingly implied that official air ambulance services would benefit directly from the revenue from text services.

CAP Code (Edition 12)

Response

AAS said they met with Trading Standards in June 2010 to try to reduce/stop complaints about their leaflet and submitted a revised copy. They said that leaflet had resulted in fewer complaints.

Assessment

1. & 2. Upheld

The ASA noted AAS had worked with Trading Standards to design a new circular, which we understood had provoked fewer complaints. We nevertheless understood that the complainant received the original circular in October. We noted, on that circular, smaller print below the headline stated "... (Trading Co) Ltd, Registered Company Number XXX ..." and "Your unwanted items are reused or recycled, they are fairly traded for profit in the UK & around the World. The environment benefits, our company and many people also benefit because of your generosity ...".

We considered that some recipients were likely to infer from the presentation of the circular, and particularly the claim "many people also benefit because of your generosity", that at least a proportion of the funds raised from the clothing collection would be donated to official air ambulance services.

Further, we noted small print stated "Texts service costs £5 plus a standard network charged message ... £1.10 per/min or approx £2 from text service goes directly to Air Ambulance Service". We considered some recipients were likely to infer that, of the £5 plus cost for a text message, £2 would be donated to AAS's collection for official air ambulance services.

Because we had seen no evidence showing that any money was donated to official air ambulance services, either from the clothing collection or from text messages, we concluded that the circular was misleading.

On both points, the circular breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 2.3 (Recognition of Marketing Communications), 3.1 and 3.3 (Misleading advertising).

Action

The circular must not be used again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)