Ad description
Claims on MI6 Confidential magazine's website, viewed on 21 June 2011, for a James Bond magazine, included "Sold online at www.mi6confidential.com, the magazine is read by thousands of fans in 37 countries worldwide."
Issue
007 Magazine & Archive Ltd challenged whether the claim that the magazine was “read by thousands of fans in 37 countries worldwide” was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
MI6 Confidential sent a list of partially redacted e-mail addresses, which they said was from their latest sales records. They said that, where customers had bought the magazine through Amazon, that was listed next to their e-mail address. Where customers had paid through PayPal, their country was listed. They said that the information substantiated the claims about the number of readers and the number of countries where the magazine was read.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered that consumers would interpret a claim that a magazine was read by a certain number of people in a certain number of countries to be a claim about that magazine’s distribution or readership figures.
We noted the information sent by MI6 Confidential in support of the claim. We considered, however, that when making distribution or readership claims for print magazines, those figures should be independently audited by a third party to ensure that the figures were accurate and verifiable.
Because the claims with regard to the number of readers and their distribution worldwide were not based on independently audited figures, we concluded the claims had not been substantiated and were therefore misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code 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 ad must not appear again in its current form. We told MI6 Confidential they should not make readership or distribution claims unless they were substantiated by an independent audit.
