ASA Adjudication on Independent News & Media Ltd

Ad

A TV ad, for a newspaper, stated “i squeezes the content of a quality paper into one that's small and beautifully informed. So I've got the knowledge, in one quick fix. No celeb gossip nonsense, just intelligent stuff and that's why I love i.

Issue

The complainant, who understood the daily Caught and Social column was dedicated to celebrity stories, challenged whether the claim "No celeb gossip nonsense" was misleading.

BCAP Code

Response

Independent News & Media Ltd (Independent) said the daily Caught and Social column was a cultural page that informed readers about worldwide Arts events that featured famous people who attended them. They said their celebrity stories differed from celebrity gossip because, unlike other newspapers, they were based on factual content and not hearsay.

Clearcast said i concentrated on newsworthy stories without sidetracking readers to the kind of celebrity gossip published in red top newspapers and celebrity magazines. They believed the ad made this clear and that the complainant had misunderstood the claim to mean that there would be no mention of celebrities at all. They said this was unrealistic because celebrities featured in a range of newsworthy stories that i reported on that were of significant interest.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted the Caught and Social column featured stories about celebrities and included sections entitled Scene & Heard, OMG, iquote and ichat that quoted celebrities and provided updates about where they had been and what they were doing. We considered that readers would understand from the ad that there was no celebrity gossip in i. However, we noted featured stories in two different publications from March included headings that stated "Alex fancies a pop at 007", "Cilla moves with the times" and "Dame Helen and Russell snog for fans". We considered that readers would interpret these stories as celebrity gossip and therefore concluded that the ad was misleading.

The ad breached BCAP code rule 3.1 (Misleading advertising).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told the Independent not to use the claim "No celeb gossip nonsense" in future.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)