ASA Adjudication on British Gas Services Ltd

Ad

A TV ad for British Gas showed an animated image of a miniature planet with a little house on it. A sun and moon were shown orbiting the planet indicating the passing of days and nights and the changing weather indicated the passing of the seasons. The ad showed a family coming and going from the house while Blur’s ‘The Universal’ played in the background. The voice-over said "At British Gas, we know your home is your world. You wait there. You relax there. You cuddle up in the warmth there. You party there. You say goodbye and hello there". A separate voice said "Oh, the boiler’s not working" and music suddenly stopped while image of the sun froze in the sky. A British Gas van appeared and a man walked from it into the house. The voice-over said "Sometimes you need a little help there". The sound of gas ignition was heard followed by the cheer of the family. The sun continued moving across the sky as the music re-started while the season turned into winter. The voice-over continued "Which is why you can reach us every day. Even over Christmas”. A Christmas scene appeared on the little planet and the voice-over said “Look after your world this Christmas with British Gas".

Issue

11 viewers challenged whether the ad misleadingly implied that British Gas would attend call-outs and carry out repairs on the same day (or at least very quickly), particularly over the Christmas period.

BCAP TV Code

Response

British Gas Services Ltd (BG) did not believe the ad stated, either explicitly or implicitly, that BG would attend call outs and carry out repairs on the same day, or at least very quickly, particularly over the Christmas period. They said the voice-over clearly stated "which is why you can reach us every day, even over Christmas" and said it was not their intention to advertise their speed of response. They said their call centres were open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year and that the intention of the ad was to demonstrate to viewers how BG was there for them, even over the festive period, and that all queries to British Gas would be dealt with in accordance with their general business practices. They said, over the festive period, their call centre remained open and that on average, 96.4% of calls were answered.

BG explained that the same-day and next-day call-out services were maintained during the festive period and provided evidence to show that the number of customers who received a same-day service between 24 December and 1 January was within the range of performance levels achieved throughout the rest of the year, although up to 7% lower than the average daily performance. They believed a high level of service was achieved despite the adverse weather conditions which occurred around the festive period and which impacted on their ability to respond to same-day and next-day call-out requests at the level expected.

Clearcast did not think the ad gave a misleading impression that a BG engineer would attend a call-out on the same day, or very quickly and that instead it was communicating that BG was available to be contacted, day or night, during the Christmas period. They said, although the visuals showed the passing of day and night with a boiler failure and the immediate dispatch of a BG engineer, they did not consider that most viewers would see that as a literal illustration of how long an engineer would take to arrive at a customers house. They said that they considered the immediacy with which the engineer arrived in the ad to be artistic licence and acceptable, given that they believed same-day attendance was not unusual, even during the Christmas period.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted the voice-over in the ad stated "... you can reach us every day" and acknowledged that British Gas call centre staff were available to be contacted by customers 24 hours a day, including bank holidays. However, we also noted the visuals in the ad showed the BG engineer appearing immediately after a voice said "Oh, the boiler's not working" and considered that, because he had fixed the boiler and driven away whilst the image froze with the sun in the sky, the ad implied a same-day call-out service formed a standard part of the BG package.

We noted BG had demonstrated that same-day and next-day call-outs and repairs were available during the Christmas period, and on Christmas Day itself, as well as throughout the rest of the year, but also noted they were not available to all customers at all times and that the speed of response was dependent on the type of problem and whether or not the customer was believed to be vulnerable or at risk. We considered that the overall impression of the ad was that customers could expect an engineer to attend on the same day that a problem was reported and concluded that, because this level of performance could not be always be achieved, the ad was likely to mislead.

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Code rules 5.1.1, 5.1.2 (Misleading advertising) 5.2.1 (Misleading advertising - evidence) and 5.2.2 (Misleading advertising - implications).

Action

The ad should not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)