ASA Adjudication on Green Island Holidays Ltd

Ad

A Google sponsored link for a tour operator stated "Direct Travel to N Cyprus. www.GreenIslandHolidays.com UK's Favourite Tour Operator to North Cyprus. Just £249 for 7 Nts".

Issue

The complainant objected that the ad was misleading because he believed that it was not possible to fly directly to North Cyprus.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Green Island Holidays Ltd (Green Island) explained that their Google sponsored links were controlled by web administrators who were based in India. They said they had used the phrase "Direct Travel to N Cyprus" in a previous ad but that following advice from the ASA, had explicitly instructed their web administrators that future ads should not directly state or imply that customers could fly directly to North Cyprus. Despite this, they stated there had been a misunderstanding and the ad appeared again without this phrase being removed. They explained that as soon as they were made aware of the mistake, they had removed the ad and gave their assurance that the error would not appear again.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA understood that it was not possible to fly directly from the UK to airports in Northern Cyprus because of a complex political embargo. We considered that the phrase "Direct Travel to N. Cyprus" implied that it was possible to fly non-stop, to Northern Cyprus and concluded that, because this was not the case at the present time, the ad was likely to mislead.

The ad breached CAP Code clause 7.1 (Truthfulness).

Action

The ad should not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)