Ad description
A take-away menu, for a pizzeria, stated "The very first authentic wood-fired Italian pizza oven in Darlington".
Issue
The complainant, who owned the 'Roosters' restaurant in Darlington, challenged whether the claim was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
Stone Bake did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by Stone Bake's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and we told them to do so in future.
We understood that the owner of Roosters restaurant in Darlington had operated a portable wood-fired Italian pizza oven in Darlington High Street in 2009, and had then installed a wood-fired Italian pizza oven in Roosters in 2010. We understood that Stone Bake's oven had been installed at a later date. Because Stone Bake had not provided any evidence to the contrary, we concluded that the claim "The very first authentic wood-fired Italian pizza oven in Darlington" was misleading.
The ad 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 ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Stone Bake they should not make claims for which they did not hold substantiation. We referred the matter to CAP's Compliance team.
