ASA Adjudication on Stena Line UK Ltd

Ad

A TV ad and regional press ad for Stena Line UK (Stena):

a. The TV ad included a voice-over which stated "Take your car from Belfast on the shortest, fastest crossing to Britain ...".

b. The press ad was headlined "My Stena Line... 'It's shorter and faster to Belfast'". Text underneath stated "Stranraer to Belfast in well under 2 hours It couldn't be easier to take your car and explore Ireland and all it has to offer. Only with the Stena HSS can you speed directly into Belfast ...".

Issue

P&O Irish Sea (P&O), who believed they offered a faster route than Stena from Northern Ireland to Scotland, challenged whether the claims:

1. "Take your car from Belfast on the shortest, fastest crossing to Britain ..." in ad (a) and

2. "'It's shorter and faster to Belfast'" in ad (b) were misleading.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

BCAP TV Code

Response

1. & 2. Stena believed their ads were not misleading because they referred specifically to Belfast as either their destination or port of arrival. They said they operated services to and from Scotland direct from the Port of Belfast with a scheduled crossing time of 105 minutes. They asserted that P&O operated from Larne, 20 miles to the north of Belfast, and argued therefore that Stena operated the shortest and fastest crossing to and from Belfast. They pointed out that the complaint had been made by a competitor, not a member of the public, and argued that the ads would not mislead viewers or readers.

1. The Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC) said they had received confirmation from Stena that their service was the shortest and fastest crossing between Belfast and Britain. They believed the TV ad clearly stated that customers would be travelling from Belfast and that, from there, a customer would experience the shortest and fastest route to Britain.  

Assessment

1. Not upheld

The ASA understood Stena offered the shortest and fastest crossing from Belfast to Britain but that P&O offered a service from Larne to Britain that was shorter and took one hour; 45 minutes less than Stena's service from Belfast.

We considered that, because it referred specifically to Belfast, the ad made clear it referred to travel from Belfast only to Britain; we considered that viewers were unlikely to understand the claim to mean Stena operated the shortest and fastest crossing to Britain and that that crossing departed from Belfast. Because we understood that Stena operated the shortest and fastest service from Belfast to Britain we considered that the ad was unlikely to mislead viewers.

On this point, we investigated the TV ad under CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1 (Misleading advertising), 5.2.1 (Evidence) and 5.4.6 (Comparative advertising) but did not find it in breach.

2. Not upheld

We considered that the claim "It's shorter and faster to Belfast", particularly in connection with the claims "Stranraer to Belfast" and "Only with the Stena HSS can you speed directly into Belfast ..." made clear that it referred to travel to Belfast only. Because we understood that Stena operated the shortest and fastest service from Scotland to Belfast, we considered that the ad was unlikely to mislead readers.

On this point, we investigated the press ad under CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 19.1 (Other comparisons) but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)