ASA Adjudication on Associated Newspapers Ltd

Ad

A TV ad for a Daily Mail reader offer stated “In today’s Daily Mail, save £10 off your shopping at Tesco … Get your money off coupons only in today’s Daily Mail". The on-screen text stated “Terms, conditions and minimum spend applies”. In the final scene the ad showed an image of two £5 Tesco vouchers alongside a copy of the Daily Mail.

Issue

A viewer challenged whether the ad was misleading because it implied that viewers would receive two £5 vouchers which could be used against their total shopping bill, when in fact the vouchers were for lesser sums and had to be used in specific departments.

BCAP TV Code

Response

Associated Newspapers Ltd (AN) said the ad clearly stated that "terms, conditions and minimum spend" applied to the redemption of the offer. They believed that it was immaterial whether viewers received two £5 vouchers or seven vouchers of smaller denominations, because viewers would still receive the same benefit of £10 off their shopping at Tesco.

Tesco Stores Ltd (Tesco) said they had no control over the content of the ad and were not shown it prior to broadcast.

Clearcast said the ad stated that viewers would receive £10 worth of savings off their shopping, and they believed this to be true. They said they understood that the vouchers were for products across Tescos stores, but believed they were nonetheless relevant to items consumers would regularly purchase. Clearcast explained that the image of the vouchers at the end of the ad was for illustrative purposes to show viewers how much they could receive off their shopping. They said they believed the ad included all of the material information for the offer, such as the minimum spend requirement, and was not misleading.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted that the seven vouchers supplied by AN were offered in denominations of £1 and £2 and were redeemable against specific ranges of items such as cereals, meat, health and beauty products and household goods. We considered that the image of two £5 vouchers in the ad implied that viewers would receive vouchers in that larger denomination, which was not the case. Furthermore, we noted the ad featured a scenario of a family doing their weekly shop which we considered reinforced the implication in the ad that the vouchers could be redeemed against a consumers total shopping bill. We considered that the ad should have made clear that the vouchers, totalling £10 overall, were in fact for smaller discounts off items in specific departments. Because the ad implied consumers would receive two five pound vouchers to spend as they wished which was not the case, we concluded the ad was likely to mislead.

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1.1, 5.1.2 and 5.1.3 (Misleading advertising) and 5.2.2 (Implications)

Action

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

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)