ASA Adjudication on LOVEFiLM UK Ltd
LOVEFiLM UK Ltd
Unit 9
6 Portal Way
London
W3 6RU
Date:
1 February 2012
Media:
Internet (on own site), Television
Sector:
Leisure
Number of complaints:
2
Complaint Ref:
A11-167853
Ad
A TV ad and claims on the LOVEfilm website:
a. Claims on the LOVEfilm website, viewed on 4 August 2011. Text on the home page stated "What you get? Britain's largest range of films and games - 70,000 titles and counting ... 1000's [sic] of films to stream instantly to your PC, TV or PS3TM at no extra cost ... ".
b. The TV ad, viewed on 3 August 2011. On-screen text stated "70,000 titles". The voice-over stated "Love film? Well, we've got thousands to stream instantly to your Playstation 3, PC, internet TV, as well as DVD's, Blu-rays and games by post".
Issue
Two complainants challenged whether the claim that LOVEfilm had 1,000s of films to stream to the Playstation 3 was misleading and exaggerated the number of films which were available.
CAP Code (Edition 12)
BCAP Code
Response
LOVEfilm said they had approximately 3,020 titles available to stream on the Playstation 3 at the time the ads were viewed. They provided documentation to support that. They believed that that figure was very substantial and substantiated the claim that LOVEfilm had thousands of films to stream to the Playstation 3.
Clearcast said they approved the ad on the basis of an assurance that LOVEfilm had thousands of films to stream on Playstation 3, Internet connected TV and PC. They said LOVEfilm confirmed that the 70,000 titles, referred to in ad (b), was the total number of titles across all formats. They said the ad then stated thousands to stream instantly and believed that made clear that the 70,000 titles did not refer solely to the number of films that were available to stream on the Playstation 3.
Assessment
Not Upheld
The ASA noted the ads related to a film streaming service. In that context, we considered consumers were likely to interpret the claim of 1000s of films to stream instantly to your Playstation 3 to mean that in excess of 2,000 titles were available to stream on the Playstation 3.
Because LOVEfilm had shown that they had approximately 3,020 titles available to stream on the Playstation 3, we considered that the claim had been substantiated and concluded that the ads did not breach the Code.
We investigated ad (a) under CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 3.7 (Substantiation) and 3.11 (Exaggeration) and ad (b) under BCAP rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 3.9 (Substantiation) and 3.12 (Exaggeration) but did not find them in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
