ASA Adjudication on Decidebloom Ltd

Ad

A TV ad for a car dealership featured a voice-over that stated "You're wondering, is my car eligible for the £2000 scrappage scheme?", to which other voices replied "No, no, no, no ...". The voice-over continued "But at Stoneacre Motor Group the answer is always yes! Because at Stoneacre we don't care how old your car is. We don't care how long you've owned it. So you can have up to £2000 scrappage allowance on every one of our 2000 used cars".

Issue

A viewer, who believed Stoneacre Motor Group (Stoneacre) were offering a part exchange deal rather than the scrappage scheme, challenged whether the ad was misleading.

BCAP TV Code

Response

Stoneacre Motor Group (SMG) said they offered up to £2000 for any car as part of their own scrappage scheme, and explained that those cars deemed as scrap would be scrapped under the advertised offer. They said the government's scrappage scheme was based on a part exchange allowance, which they mirrored in their offer.

Clearcast said they considered the voice-over "Is my car eligible for the £2000 scrappage scheme? No, no, no ... But at Stoneacre Motor Group the answer is always yes" made clear that SMG would offer a scrappage allowance even if the customer's car did not fit the standard criteria for the government's scheme. Clearcast said, although not scrappage allowance in the true sense of the word, they considered the offer was essentially an alternative, independent equivalent to the scrappage scheme and that the ad did not therefore mislead customers.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted that SMG offered up to £2000 off any car they sold to customers in part exchange for their current car, if it did not qualify for the government's scrappage scheme. We understood that under the government's scrappage scheme all old cars that fulfilled the qualifying requirements would be scrapped by the participating dealer and customers would receive £2000. We considered that the references to SMG's "scrappage allowance" in the ad were ambiguous and could imply either that SMG were participating in the government's scrappage scheme or that they offered their own similar scrappage scheme, whereby they too routinely scrapped all cars they received from customers as part exchange under the offer. Because we understood that that was not the case and not all cars would be scrapped, and because we considered that some customers might be misled into thinking they would receive £2000 rather than "up to £2000", we concluded that the ad was misleading.

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1.1 (Misleading advertising) and 5.2.1 (Evidence).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)