ASA Non-broadcast Adjudication: Disney Channel UK

Complaint

A poster, for the Playhouse Disney Channel, claimed "Now everyone can watch playhouse Disney Channel". Smallprint at the bottom of the ad stated "Now available to subscribers of Sky Kids Mix, NTL Family Pack, Telewest Supreme Pack". The complainants, whose children read the headline and believed the Channel was either free or available to everyone, complained that the ad was misleading to children and actively encouraged pester power.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Adjudication

Complaints upheld

Disney Channel UK (Disney Channel) explained that Playhouse Disney was a channel for pre-school children and the posters were, therefore, aimed at parents and carers of those children. They said the headline "Now everyone can watch Playhouse Disney Channel" was intended to make readers aware that Playhouse Disney had moved from the premium package to its basic "kids' pack" in Sky and cable homes, thereby joining all the other kids' channels. They believed they had made that clear, in a large font, at the bottom of the poster. They pointed out that that text was the second largest in the ad and was positioned above the other programmes they were promoting. They offered to amend their advertising if it was found to breach the Code.

The ASA noted the headline had been qualified with information about which subscribers could now receive the channel. Nevertheless, we considered that the characters and colours in the poster were likely to appeal to children of a young age and the headline message should not, therefore, be ambiguous or open to interpretation. Because we considered that children could easily believe they would now be able to watch the Disney Channel, without understanding that parents or carers needed to be subscribers to a service for which an additional charge applied, we concluded that the smaller explanatory text was not sufficient to override that misleading impression. We welcomed Disney Channel's willingness to amend their advertising and asked them to amend the headline claim. We advised them to seek help from the CAP Copy Advice team with those amendments.

The poster breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 47.1 (Children).