ASA Adjudication on Rogaile Ltd

Ad

An ad on a clothing collection bag read "UNWANTED CLOTHING COLLECTION 'HELPING ARMS' Dear Householder, We will be grateful if you could kindly donate your unwanted Ladies, Gents & Children's Clothing ... (that you have no further use for) Please put these items into the plastic bag/bags and leave visible outside your front door ... The more clothing your [sic] give the more the charity will benefit. Our authorised collection will start collect [sic] at 09:00 hours in the morning and will continue all day, no matter what the weather conditions are. PLEASE HELP THOSE WHO REALLY NEED YOUR SUPPORT ..." Small text at the bottom read "A collecting company which proved [sic] people in Eastern Europe and African countries with affordable clothes for them and their families. It proved [sic] jobs in Eastern European countries for those sorting the clothes for distribution. It also provides business for UK export transport companies as Well [sic] as creating employment in the UK factories granding [sic] the clothes and those people collecting the bags door to door. Company No ... ".

Issue

Buckinghamshire County Council Trading Standards challenged whether the text on the bag misleadingly implied that:

1. the company was a charity or that a charity stood to benefit from the clothing and

2. the collections had been authorised by the Local Authority.

CAP Code

Response

1. Law Firm Ltd (Law Firm), responding on behalf of Helping Arms Ltd (Helping Arms), explained that Helping Arms was a registered company formed for the purpose of carrying out charitable assistance to medical organisations in the UK. They sent the ASA a copy of the companys Certificate of Incorporation, the first page of the Memorandum of Association and explained that the companys application for registration as a charity was currently under consideration.

Law Firm said the word "charity" had been removed from the collection bags at the request of Hampshire County Council and sent us a sample of their new bag to show that.

2. Law Firm explained that the reference to "our authorised collection" was not intended to imply that the collections had been authorised by a Local Authority but by Helping Arms to prevent their bags being collected by other companies. They said they were willing to remove this reference if required to do so by the ASA.

Assessment

1. Upheld

The ASA noted the companys Memorandum of Association stated that Helping Arms was formed for the purpose of carrying out charitable assistance to medical organisations in the UK. We also noted they were in the process of applying for charitable status and acknowledged that they had received a letter from University College London Hospitals (UCLH) thanking them for a recent donation of £200. While the ASA noted Helping Arms registration number was included on the collection bags, along with a contact number and e-mail address, we considered that the presentation and the text "the more clothing your [sic] give the more the charity will benefit" could lead recipients to confuse Helping Arms with a registered charity. We also considered that the bags should have made clear which charities would directly benefit from the collections and also the basis upon which the contribution to the charities would be calculated. We concluded that, because this information was lacking, the ad was in breach of the Code.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 37.1 (Charity-linked promotions) but not 3.1 (Substantiation) or 6.1 (Honesty).

2. Not upheld

We noted Helping Arms intended the reference to their "authorised collection" to prevent their bags being collected by other companies. We considered that, because the text read "our authorised collection", recipients were unlikely to infer that the collection was authorised by the Local Authority.

On this point, we investigated the ad under CAP Code clause 7.1 (Truthfulness) but did not find it in breach.

Action

We told Helping Arms to amend their approach to avoid them being confused with a registered charity and advised them to contact the CAP Copy Advice team for guidance in doing so.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)