ASA Adjudication on Victorian Sliders Ltd

Ad

A leaflet, for sliding windows, stated "Charisma is a stylish window that offers strong, secure build with incredibly low maintenance and thanks to the innovative aluminium security bar it is one of the securest vertical sliders available."

Issue

Masterframe Windows Ltd challenged the claim "one of the securest vertical sliders available."

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Victorian Sliders did not respond in writing to our enquiries. They said, in a telephone conversation, that their windows had an aluminium bar on the step that they believed meant it could not be prised open. They said other manufacturers made more secure windows than theirs but argued that the claim "one of the securest" did not imply that their windows were the most secure windows available on the market. They said they were aware of the British Standard for security of windows and that Masterframe had achieved that standard; they said they did not have it. They maintained that they had applied for the Police Secured by Design standard.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA was concerned by Victorian Sliders lack of written response and apparent disregard for the CAP Code. We reminded them of their responsibility to respond to our enquiries in writing when asked and told them to do so promptly in future.

We noted Masterframe had the British Standard for security of windows and the Police Secured by Design standard; we also noted Victorian Sliders did not have either standard. We noted there were national standards to which windows could be tested for security and therefore the level of security provided by a window could be measured. We considered that the claim "one of the securest vertical sliders available" implied the windows had been tested and, when compared to other manufacturers windows, were among the most secure. We concluded that, because we had not seen evidence to show that they were among the most secure, the claim was likely to mislead.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 2.6 (Non-response), 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 19.1 (Other comparisons).

Action

We told Victorian Sliders to remove the claim "one of the securest vertical sliders available" from their advertising. We asked CAP to inform its media members of the problem with the advertiser.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)