Ad description

A promotion seen on the website www.halfords.com on 13 September 2013 for a Carrera TDF Road Bike stated "WAS £599.99. SAVE £350.00 (58%). £249.99. BETTER THAN 1/2 PRICE - CARRERA TDF NOW £249.99, SAVE £350. MUST END MONDAY [16 September]".

Issue

The complainant challenged whether the claim "must end Monday" was misleading and could be substantiated, because the offer was extended beyond the closing date.

Response

Halfords Ltd (Halfords) said the initial plan was to run the promotion for five days. They said because sales of the product had significantly increased during the promotional period, they decided to continue the promotion for a further seven days.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted that closing dates must not be changed unless circumstances outside the reasonable control of the promoter made it unavoidable, as required by the CAP Code. We noted that Halfords had extended the promotion by a further seven days because of the high number of sales.

We considered that the original ad, which stated a prominent offer end date, despite not stating it in conjunction with explicit calls to action such as "hurry", nevertheless suggested that, to take advantage of the 58% discount, customers needed to take it up by the original 16 September end date. Because that end date was subsequently extended, we considered customers, who might have hurried to make a decision to take advantage of the offer before the original end date, had been disadvantaged. We considered that the higher number of sales was not a sufficient or unavoidable reason for them to extend the end date of the offer. Because of that, we concluded that the promotion was misleading and in breach of the CAP Code.

The promotion breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules  3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.  (Misleading advertising),  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),  8.2 8.2 Promoters must conduct their promotions equitably, promptly and efficiently and be seen to deal fairly and honourably with participants and potential participants. Promoters must avoid causing unnecessary disappointment.  (Sales promotions),  8.17 8.17 All marketing communications or other material referring to promotions must communicate all applicable significant conditions or information where the omission of such conditions or information is likely to mislead. Significant conditions or information may, depending on the circumstances, include:    8.17.4 8.17.4 Closing date
 and  8.17.4 8.17.4 Closing date
  (Significant conditions for promotions).

Action

The promotion must not appear again in its current form. We told Halfords to ensure closing dates of promotions were not extended unless circumstances outside their reasonable control made it unavoidable.

CAP Code (Edition 12)

3.1     3.7     8.17     8.17.4     8.17.4e     8.2    


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