ASA Adjudication on Express Newspapers

Ad

A readers’ offer, in the national press, was headlined “DAILY EXPRESS Reader Offer Alpine Army Watch Just like the famous original”. Text stated “The Famous Alpine army watch is now available to the public for only £9.95!” and described the watch’s features. Boxed text stated “BUY ONE GET ONE FREE Only £17.95 PLUS £2.95 P&P” and an order form stated “Please Send Me 1 X Alpine Watch @ £17.95 + £2.95 p&p = £20.90 Buy One Get One FREE!”.

Issue

The complainant challenged whether the ad was misleading, because he believed it was not a genuine 'buy one get one free' offer and that the price had been inflated to cover the cost of the 'free' watch.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Express Newspapers stated that the ad contained a typo which had not been caught before going to print. They said that their supplier had explained that there was a mistake in the ad. The supplier said that they used to sell the watch at £9.95 each plus P&P", but now sold the watch at £17.95 buy one get one free", which they said was a saving of £1.95 compared to their original price.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted that the watch was advertised in the ad at two different prices £9.95" and "BUY ONE GET ONE FREE Only £17.95" and that the Express maintained the £9.95 price had been printed in error. We understood that the supplier had previously sold the watch at £9.95, but now sold the watch at £17.95 buy one get one free". We considered that consumers would understand the claim BUY ONE GET ONE FREE Only £17.95to mean that the original price of one watch was £17.95 and that the advertised offer now enabled them to receive two watches for £17.95; one at the full price and the other one free. We understood, however, that the watch was originally sold at £9.95 (+P&P) and had not previously been sold at £17.95. The suppliers claimed that £17.95 buy one get one free" was a saving of £1.95 compared to their original price. The original price must therefore have been £9.95, as two watches sold at £9.95 would cost £19.90, which was £1.95 more than £17.95. We therefore considered the offer was not a genuine buy one get one free promotion.

Because we understood that the original price of the watch was £9.95 and because we had not seen evidence that the watch had previously been sold at £17.95, before being offered for sale at £17.95 as a buy one get one free offer, we considered that the price of the watch had been inflated for the buy one get one free offer, and concluded that the claim "BUY ONE GET ONE FREE Only £17.95" was misleading.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1, 7.2 (Truthfulness) and 32.2 (Free offers and free trials).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)