Ad description
A TV ad for a dating service stated "Match.com nights are a great night out in a local bar, where everyone is single. Match.com. Join free today".
Issue
The complainant, who understood that Match.com nights were held in venues open to the public and that each attending member was permitted to bring friends who were not members, challenged whether the claim "Match.com nights ... where everyone is single" was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
Match.com International Ltd stated that Match.com Nights (Nights) were intended to offer their members the opportunity to meet other single people in an informal, friendly and relaxed setting. They said the Nights were held in a bar and those attending were normally greeted by one of their representatives, who would direct them to the designated area where the event was being hosted. Match.com stated that, because there could be stigma attached to singles nights, they aimed to keep their events as low key and discreet as possible and therefore did not clearly display that the designated area was restricted to Match.com invitees only.
Match.com explained that members attending a Night were able to bring up to three friends with them. However, they said those friends should also be single, which was made clear in e-mails they sent to members. They provided examples of the e-mail invites for a Match.com Night, which stated that up to three "single" friends could attend with each member. They noted that some (though not all) parts of their website had previously omitted to refer to members' guests as single and confirmed that relevant changes had since been made.
Clearcast stated that Match.com Nights were held in venues with a designated area set aside for the event; whilst the area wouldn't be labelled in such a way as to cause embarrassment to the attending guests, it would be segregated so as to clearly define the event's parameters. They considered that Match.com made reasonable efforts to communicate the fact that the Nights were for single people and that it would be fair to expect guests to adhere to that request.
Assessment
Not upheld
The ASA acknowledged that the Nights took place in designated areas of public venues and that consequently not everybody in the venue would be there for the event, or would necessarily be single. However, we considered that most viewers would be familiar with the practice of cordoning off areas of a public venue for the purposes of holding an event, and would expect the same system to apply to a Match.com Night. We were therefore satisfied that they would understand the claim "Match.com nights are a great night out in a local bar, where everyone is single" to mean that everybody attending the event, rather than everybody in the venue, would be single.
We understood that Match.com expected any guests attending with members to be single, and noted that they communicated that fact to their members through e-mails. We considered it was reasonable, therefore, for Match.com to state that all those attending a Match.com Night would be single, and concluded that the ad was not misleading.
We investigated the ad under BCAP Code rules
3.1
3.1
Advertisements must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
and
3.2
3.2
Advertisements must not mislead consumers by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.
Material information is information that consumers need in context to make informed decisions about whether or how to buy a product or service. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead consumers depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the advertisement is constrained by time or space, the measures that the advertiser takes to make that information available to consumers by other means.
(Misleading advertising),
3.9
3.9
Broadcasters must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that the audience is 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) and
3.12
3.12
Advertisements must not mislead by exaggerating the capability or performance of a product or service.
(Exaggeration), but did not find it in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
