Ad description
Three directory ads for a company of plumbing and heating engineers, seen in September 2011. Ad (a) stated "AYLESBURY DRAINS ... 01296 ..." and text at the foot of the ad read "1st Active Drainage". Ad (b) stated "THAME DRAINS ... 01844 ..." anbd text running along the edge of the ad read "1st Active Drainage". Ad (c), which occupied a double page in the directory and had been divided into four sections to give the appearance of several different ads, stated "... DEPENDABLE, LOCAL, PROFESSIONAL, RELIABLE ... Local to your postcode for FAST response ... LOCAL FAMILY RUN BUSINESS ...". Boxed text included several locations and a telephone number with a dialling code corresponding to each, for example "AYLESBURY 01296 ...", "CHINNOR 01844 ..." and "TRING 01442 ..."
Issue
One reader, who understood that the advertiser was based in Southampton, challenged whether the ads misleadingly implied that the advertisers were a "local" company to each of the locations listed.
Response
1st Active Drainage Ltd (1st Active) said their office was based in Southampton. They said they had engineers who lived in all of the advertised areas, which they believed enabled them to say they were local to those areas.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA noted that ads (a) and (b) contained the prominent headline statements "AYLESBURY DRAINS" and "THAME DRAINS" respectively and that local area phone numbers were provided in each. We noted that two sections of ad (c) stated "LOCAL FAMILY RUN BUSINESS" and included a list of several locations, each with related local area phone numbers. We noted 1st Active's assertion that they had engineers who were based in the locations listed but we noted the ads were not qualified to explain that. We considered that, in the absence of such qualification, consumers would infer that they had offices in each of the named locations. Because we noted that their office was in Southampton, we concluded the ads were misleading.
The ads breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising) and 3.7 3.7 Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation. (Substantiation).
Action
The ads must not appear again in their current form. We told 1st Active to make clear in future that they do not have offices in each of the named locations.
