ASA Adjudication on Harveys Furnishing Group Ltd

Ad

A TV and national press ad for Harveys furniture store: a. the TV ad stated "Save up to half price at the Harveys winter sale plus an extra 10% off throughout the store … Everything's reduced plus an extra 10% off throughout the store". The ad included a sofa: on-screen text showed that the price had been reduced from £899 to £399 and stated "over half price". A table and chairs were also included: on-screen text showed that the price had been reduced from £899 to £599. Another sofa was included and the voice-over stated "Only £299 for this fabulous three-seater sofa", while on-screen text showed that that item had been reduced from £849; b. the national press ad stated "the Harveys up to half price sale plus an extra 10% off sale prices throughout the store". The ad included photographs of three items. Text stated "Boat dining table & 6 chairs … was £599 sale £499 now £399 save £200 … Brando 3 seater sofa … was £899 sale £449 now £399 better than half price … Prague bedroom range … was £1399 sale £799 now £699 half price". Text accompanying all three photographs stated "more than an extra 10% off". Small print text stated "… 10% off applies to many ranges throughout our stores … Now prices … are the final net prices after the sale and extra 10% off reduction had been applied".

Issue

Two viewers, one of whom also noticed ad (b), challenged whether the following claims were misleading, because they found that the extra 10% discount applied only to certain items:

1 "Save up to half price at the Harveys winter sale plus an extra 10% off throughout the store" in ad (a); and

2.  "plus an extra 10% off sale prices throughout the store" in ad (b).

CAP Code (Edition 11)

BCAP TV Code

Response

1. & 2.  Harveys Furnishing Group (Harveys) said the claim, "An extra 10% off throughout the store", had been part of Harveys' Summer, Autumn and Winter 2008 sales, which had been advertised extensively on TV, radio, local and national press, leaflets and in-store, inclusive to millions of consumers and yet had resulted in only two complaints.  They explained that for many years they had used an alternative sale claim, "up to half price Sale plus an extra 10% off absolutely everything", whereby consumers were entitled to the additional saving on all Harveys purchases.  In July 2008, the claim was amended to "an extra 10% off throughout the store", because the 'extra 10% off' reduction no longer applied to all of Harveys' product lines.  They said the items included in the offer were made clear to customers on point of sale material in-store.  

Harveys sent details of the number of ranges that were included in the 'extra 10% off' offer, which demonstrated that it applied to 85% of dining and bedroom products and 71% of sofas.  They explained that, since items in all of Harveys' product categories were included, the claim "throughout the store" was valid.  They explained that there were three priced items in ad (b) and that the savings demonstrated in all three cases were greater than 10% and one item was reduced by over half price plus a further 10%.  They said, regardless, it had never been their intention to mislead and were disappointed that two customers had been dissatisfied.  

Clearcast explained that Harveys wished to convey that discounts were to be found in every department across the store and on all product ranges.  They said, if Harveys had wanted to state that the extra discount was available on every product, then they would have done so because this was a much stronger sales message.  They reiterated Harveys' comments that the extra 10% discount was available on 85% of dining and bedroom furniture and more than 70% of sofas.  The offer was not, therefore, limited and ad (a) was not meant to mislead or attract consumers to Harveys' stores only for them to discover that many products were not participating: this would be counterproductive and engender bad feeling.

Assessment

1. & 2.  Upheld

The ASA considered that consumers were likely to infer from the claims "Save up to half price at the Harveys winter sale plus an extra 10% off throughout the store" in ad (a) and "plus an extra 10% off sale prices throughout the store" in ad (b) that the sale price of all items was reduced by a further 10%.  We noted ad (a) also stated "Everything's reduced plus an extra 10% off throughout the store" which added to this impression.  We understood that Harveys had recently amended the claim to try to avoid giving the impression that 'everything' had been further reduced, but considered that the intended interpretation was not one that which consumers were likely to take.

We noted ad (b) included small print, which stated that the 10% off offer applied to 'many ranges' throughout the store.  We considered, however, that that text was not prominent and was likely to be easily overlooked by readers who were attracted by the offer in the headline.  In addition, because the inference that readers were likely to take from the headline claim was that the sale price of all items was reduced by a further 10%, the small print contradicted rather than qualified the message.  

We concluded therefore that, although unintentional, the claims in both ads were likely to mislead.  

Ad (a) breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1.1, 5.1.2 (Misleading advertising) and 5.2.3 (Qualifications) and ad (b) breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1, 7.2 (Truthfulness) and 27.4 (Sales promotion rules).

Action

The ads should not appear again in their current form.  We advised Harveys to seek a view from the CAP Copy Advice team regarding future non-broadcast advertising material.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)