ASA Adjudication on DFS Trading Ltd

Ad

A TV ad for the DFS half price sale, on the 'Zeta' collection, showed a large orange corner sofa with a moveable back. A further five sofas were also shown with their normal selling price crossed out to show the sale price. At two different points in the ad, two women wrote "Half Price" on the camera lens. The voice-over said "If you want a new sofa, then today and this bank holiday you should go to DFS. You'll get the sofa you want at a price you will like because right now you can get half price on a sofa that's your style … come and see the half price Zeta collection at DFS."

Issue

One viewer challenged whether the ad was misleading, because the orange sofa featured in the ad was not included in the half price sale.

BCAP TV Code

Response

DFS disagreed that the ad was misleading.  They said it featured four sofas alongside pricing information; those sofas were part of the 'Zeta' collection and were half price.  The ad also featured two sofas without pricing information; those sofas were not part of the Zeta collection and were therefore not half price.  DFS said they had been careful to ensure that no voice-over or graphic mentioning the price promotion was shown at the same time as either of the sofas not included in the promotion.  They said they had used a similar approach in previous ads without complaint.

Clearcast said they cleared the ad on the understanding that all featured sofas were part of the 'Zeta' collection and were half price.  Clearcast said, if they had known that some of the sofas shown in the ad were not included in the sale, they would not have approved it for transmission.  

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted no price was shown on-screen in relation to the orange sofa and the voice-over did not mention the half price sale when it was shown.  We nevertheless considered that, in the context of an ad promoting a half price sale on sofas in a particular range, viewers were likely to infer that all sofas shown were part of that range and included in the half price sale.  Because we understood that two sofas featured in the ad were excluded from the sale, we concluded that the ad was misleading.

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1.1, 5.1.2 and 5.1.3 (Misleadingness).

Action

The ad must not be broadcast again in its current form.  

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)