ASA Adjudication on A2B Skip Hire (Wirral) Ltd

Ad

A regional press ad for a skip hire company had the headline "A2B WIRRAL LIMITED. WIRRALS [sic] LARGEST SKIP HIRE & RECYCLING CENTRE". Text underneath stated "We operate the largest fleet of skip wagons on the Wirral. ALL SIZE SKIPS. MINI MIDI MAXI ROLL ON ROLL OFF. With 90% of our waste recycled WE WILL GUARANTEE TO BEAT PRICES BY ANY MAJOR COMPANIES".

Issue

Major Skip Hire challenged whether the claims "WIRRALS LARGEST SKIP HIRE & RECYCLING CENTRE" and "We operate the largest fleet of skip wagons on the Wirral" were misleading and could be substantiated.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

A2B Skip Hire (Wirral) Ltd (A2B) said they believed they had the largest fleet of skips on the Wirral, and maintained that there were eight other skip hire companies operating on the Wirral. They said they did not hold evidence that compared the size of their skip wagon fleet with their competitors, but they said they had recently bought some of one of their competitor's skip wagons and were now the larger operator. A2B provided a list of registration numbers for their fleet of skips.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted A2B's response and list of skip wagon registration numbers. We understood that there were many skip hire companies operating on the Wirral. We considered that the claims should be supported by evidence that compared A2B with all other skip hire and recycling companies based on the Wirral. Because they were not we concluded that the claims were misleading.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 19.1 (Other comparisons).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told A2B not to make similar claims in future ads unless they held comparative evidence to substantiate the claims.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)