ASA Adjudication on DSG Retail Ltd

Ad

A TV ad, for the Ei System 3087 laptop, showed a lady discussing laptops with a PC World member of staff. A poster on the desk read "EiSYSTEM widescreen laptop £299". The salesman confirmed that the laptop was wireless, had an Intel Celeron M processor 420, a 40 Gb hard drive, a DVD rewriter and a 15.4 inch widescreen. The lady asked how much the laptop cost and was told "How about £299 ... If you're quick, yes … ".

Issue

Five viewers challenged the availability of the laptop. Four viewers claimed that none were available the day after they saw the ad and one viewer said he was told that none were available in the UK and that the offer had ended.

BCAP TV Code

Response

PC World explained that, during the two-week promotion, they had sold 7,062 units at the offer price of £299; averaging 504 units per day. They said, in the two to three weeks prior to the sale, they had sold approximately 30 units per day at £399.99. PC World said they had predicted that 3,648 units would be sufficient to satisfy the increase in demand the promotion would generate. They explained that the demand was vastly more than they had expected. Nevertheless, they had coped with nearly twice their calculated predicted demand. Their records showed no particular problems with supply and demand at the stores the complainants visited; over 350 units of the product were sold at those stores whilst the ad was on air.

They explained that predicting demand for Christmas and January sales was difficult. However, their prediction had been based on a similar promotion carried out 12 months previously, when approximately 3,000 units had been sold at the promotional price, and on independent research carried out on market growth.

The Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC) endorsed the response submitted by PC World and added that PC World routinely confirmed that reasonable stocks were in place, based on forecasts. They explained that, sometimes, demand could cause surprise. They said pre-Christmas trading was slow; however, nearer Christmas there was a great demand for laptops. The BACC claimed that, on the rare occasions when customers were disappointed, PC World tried to offer them a similar deal.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA noted the difficulties PC World encountered when predicting the expected demand for the laptop during the Christmas period; we also noted they had based their prediction on a previous similar Christmas promotion. Although the demand exceeded their prediction, PC World had supplied nearly twice the demand they had predicted. We acknowledged that some viewers were disappointed that they could not buy the advertised Ei System 3087 laptop but considered that, overall, PC World had supplied the product in significant quantities at the promotional price and, when the ad was broadcast for a couple of days at the start of the two-week promotion, PC World had every reason to expect they would easily be able to satisfy demand. We concluded that the ad was not misleading.

We investigated the ad under CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1 (Misleading advertising) and 5.2.3 (Qualifications) but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)