ASA Adjudication on INnOUT Services Ltd

Ad

A radio ad for an MOT garage stated: "For a lot of garages, MOT stands for one thing, 'Money On Top'. A chance to charge you extra for that indicator bulb that just happens to need replacing, or those headlights that suddenly need realigning. But with Express MOT, if your car fails on something small like wipers, bulbs or headlight alignment, we fix it for free. There's no money on top, just £49 for an Express MOT. So whatever MOT stands for, you shouldn't stand for anything less than Express MOT from In and Out ... MOT the way it should be".

Issue

The listener challenged whether the ad denigrated other MOT garages by suggesting that they were likely to behave unethically.

BCAP Radio Code

Response

In 'n' Out Services Ltd (In 'n' Out) said the ad aimed to inform customers that they charged a flat fee for the provision of an MOT testing service. They said the ad was intended to reassure the listener that there would be no further charges for minor repairs to the vehicle deemed necessary for it to pass the test. For example, where a failure was down to a simple adjustment, such as headline realignment, replacement bulb or windscreen wipers. In 'n' Out said those things would be fixed for free, and that at the time the ad was produced that service was not known to be offered by any other competitors. They said they believed that "no Money On Top" was therefore an accurate description of the service they provided.

GCap Media said the ad was intended to highlight the fact that, whereas many other garages would fail a car that needed small modifications during the MOT process, incurring the customer additional costs, In 'n 'Out would fix any necessary small modifications for free.

GCap Media said that great care was taken to use a positive female voice-over in the ad, which was unusual for that category of ad. They said the light hearted phrase "Money on Top" was immediately explained, so that the listener was in no doubt as to what it referred to. They said they believed that a lot of garages did charge for small modifications, but that they were careful not to state that all garages did. They said they did not believe the ad denigrated other garages, but highlighted instead a tangible client benefit in a positive way.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA noted that the intention of the ad was to highlight that customers would not be charged for any necessary minor adjustments or realignments in addition to the £49 MOT rate. We acknowledged that the ad stated that "a lot of garages" would charge "Money on Top", but we considered that the ad did not state that all or most garages would charge extra unnecessary costs, and nor did it refer directly or indirectly to a specific competitor. We also considered that listeners were unlikely to infer from the ad that all or most other MOT garages behaved unethically, and we therefore concluded that the ad did not denigrate other MOT garages.

We investigated the ad under CAP (Broadcast) Radio Advertising Code section 2-7 (Denigration) but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)