ASA Adjudication on Parkside

Ad

A mailing, in the form of an invoice, for advertising space in Parkside's wall planner. The mailing was headed "INVOICE" and text below stated "Title of Publication: Crime Prevention Wall Planner. Invoice No: CPWP7a 60. Invoice Date: 18/08/2006. Cost: £295.00. Advert Size: Single Block 45mm x 70mm. 5% Discount available if your remittance is received within 10 days of date of Invoice ...". To the left of the text was a sample ad for the recipient's company.

Issue

The complainant thought the mailing was dishonest and misleading, because it resembled an invoice although his company had not requested, or agreed to, an ad in Parkside's wall planner.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Parkside did not send a substantive response to the ASA's enquiries, despite repeated requests to do so.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA was concerned by Parkside's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code clause 2.6 (Non-response). We reminded them of their obligations under the Code and told them to respond promptly in future.

Furthermore, we considered that the mailing misleadingly implied that payment was required for services to which the recipient had already committed, and could thereby exploit companies in which commissioning of goods or services and payment for those services were separated.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 6.1 (Honesty), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 22.1 (Identifiable marketing).

Action

We told Parkside not to repeat the approach and asked CAP to advise its members of the problem with Parkside.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)