ASA Adjudication on Premier Taxis Ltd

Ad

Two leaflets, for a taxi service:

a. The first stated “WARNING! DON’T BE ‘TAKEN FOR A RIDE’ BY WHITESIDES TAXIS - THEY ARE NOT A BLACKPOOL TAXI COMPANY! THEY ARE BASED MILES AWAY FROM BLACKPOOL! IF YOU USE THEIR SERVICE PLEASE RE-CONSIDER! IF PRICE, QUALITY AND SERVICE MATTER THEN CONTACT PREMIER … SUPPORT BLACKPOOL TAXI DRIVERS AND THEIR FAMILIES!”.

b. The second stated “WARNING! WHITESIDES TAXIS ARE NOT A BLACKPOOL TAXI COMPANY! THEY ARE BASED MILES AWAY FROM BLACKPOOL! IF YOU USE THEIR SERVICE PLEASE RE-CONSIDER! IF PRICE, QUALITY AND SERVICE MATTER THEN CONTACT PREMIER … SUPPORT BLACKPOOL TAXI DRIVERS!”.

Issue

Whiteside Taxis challenged whether the leaflets:

1. misleadingly implied that they offered a slow service, because they stated " ... THEY ARE BASED MILES AWAY FROM BLACKPOOL ..." ; and

2. were denigratory, in particular because ad (a) stated "DONT BE TAKEN FOR A RIDE ... ".

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

1. & 2. Premier Taxis explained they were involved in an ongoing dispute with Whiteside Taxis, who were based in St Annes. They said they were based in Blackpool itself and were attempting to protect their business, because they believed the complainant wanted to hide the fact that they were not based in Blackpool from consumers to take trade from them.

Assessment

1. Upheld

The ASA noted Whiteside Taxis was not based in Blackpool itself; however, we understood their office was a short drive away. We considered the claim " ... THEY ARE BASED MILES AWAY FROM BLACKPOOL ..." was likely to be interpreted as suggesting Whiteside Taxis were based a considerable distance from Blackpool and therefore offered a slow service; we noted, however, we had not seen any evidence that Whiteside Taxis location affected the speed of their service. We concluded that the ads were misleading.

On this point, the ads breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 18.1 (Comparisons with identified competitors and/or their products).

2. Upheld

We considered the overall impression of the ads, in particular the text "THEY ARE NOT A BLACKPOOL TAXI COMPANY! THEY ARE BASED MILES AWAY FROM BLACKPOOL! IF YOU USE THEIR SERVICE PLEASE RE-CONSIDER! IF PRICE, QUALITY AND SERVICE MATTER THEN CONTACT PREMIER ..." in both ads and "DONT BE TAKEN FOR A RIDE ... " in ad (a), was such that they were likely to be interpreted as suggesting Whiteside Taxis offered a slow service, intended to mislead consumers and, in contrast to Premier Taxis, did not value price, quality and service. We noted we had seen no evidence to show that that was the case. We acknowledged the dispute between the two companies but noted that ads should nevertheless comply with the Code. We concluded that the ads unfairly discredited the complainants business.

On this point, the ads breached CAP Code clause 20.1 (Denigration and unfair advantage).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Premier Taxis to ensure comparative claims in future marketing material were not likely to mislead and did not unfairly attack or discredit businesses or their products.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)