ASA Adjudication on Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd

Ad

A radio ad for three 'Mr Bean' DVDs; the voice-over stated "... Plus find a free kid's cinema ticket in every pack for the new movie 'Mr Bean's Holiday' ...".

Issue

The complainant objected that the ad was misleading, because it did not make clear the tickets were valid only for Vue cinemas. She said there were no Vue cinemas in her region.

BCAP Radio Code

Response

Universal Pictures (UK) (Universal) apologised for any disappointment suffered by the complainant. They sent the sticker used on the front of the packaging for the three 'Mr Bean' DVDs and pointed out that it stated that the offer applied to Vue cinemas and that terms and conditions applied.

The Radio Advertising Clearance Centre (RACC) believed it was not necessary for the ad to specify to which cinema chain the offer applied; however, they expected advertisers to ensure that participating cinema chains lay within the transmission area of radio stations that ran the ad. They pointed out that the sticker on the front of the DVDs made clear the offer applied to Vue cinemas. They said the ad was cleared on the condition that no terms and conditions were applicable to the free cinema ticket.

GCap Media said they owned Southern FM, the radio station the complainant heard the ad on, and had been responsible for booking the ad's broadcast on that station and on a number of other radio stations. They said the Radio Consignment Note and Rotation Instructions (RCNRI) that Universal sent for the ad gave no indication that the free tickets were only for Vue cinemas. They sent the RCNRI, which stated that the client wanted the ad to be broadcast on Southern FM. They asserted that, because the scripts were cleared by the RACC and because they were not told that the free tickets were only for Vue cinemas, they would not have known to challenge whether the ad should be broadcast on Southern FM.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted the sticker on the "Mr Bean" DVD packaging stated that the offer was valid for Vue cinemas.

We considered that listeners were unlikely to infer from the ad that the offer applied to every UK cinema and were likely to understand that there would be restrictions on the cinemas that would accept the free ticket. However, we considered that listeners were likely to expect the offer to apply to a cinema within the transmission area of the station on which they heard the ad. We considered that, if it had been broadcast only on stations that had a Vue cinema in their transmission area, the ad would have been acceptable. We noted, however, the complainant said the nearest Vue cinema was approximately 50 miles away from where she lived. We considered that, because the ad was broadcast on at least one station that had no Vue cinemas within its transmission area, it was likely to mislead.

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) Radio Advertising Standards Code section 2 rule 3 (Misleadingness).

Action

We told Universal to take greater care with the scheduling of future similar ads.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)