ASA Adjudication on Abbey National plc

Ad

A TV ad, for Abbey mortgages, showed two hedgehogs pushing a big red box and the voice-over stated “… Only Abbey offers you great mortgages with no upfront costs, no valuation, booking or even legal fees … No upfront fees …”.

Issue

Two viewers said the ad was misleading, because they understood that only one Abbey mortgage had no booking fee, whilst all other products had fees that could be paid upfront or included in the mortgage.

BCAP TV Code

Response

Abbey said the claim "only Abbey offers you great mortgages with no upfront fees ..." made clear that they offered a range of mortgages.  They explained that the viewers were incorrect, because they offered six mortgages with no upfront fees and not just one such mortgage.  They sent information to substantiate that six Abbey mortgages were available to consumers that charged no upfront fees.

The Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC) said they had received comprehensive substantiation from Abbey, prior to clearing the ad, which showed they offered a range of mortgages with no upfront fees.  They said they were satisfied that the ad was not misleading and believed the viewers had been given incorrect information.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA acknowledged that Abbey offered six mortgages with no valuation fees, booking fees or legal fees.  We noted Abbey also offered over 20 other mortgages and, for most of them,  the booking fee charged could be added on to the mortgage and paid off over time.  We considered that most viewers would understand the claims made in the ad to mean that Abbey offered a selection of mortgages with no upfront fees of any kind, not that all the mortgages Abbey offered had no upfront fees.  Because Abbey had shown that they offered a number of mortgages with no upfront fees, we concluded that the ad did not mislead.

We investigated the ad under CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1 (Misleading advertising) and 9.3 (Finance and investment - Misleading advertising), but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)