Ad description
An ad in a catalogue for a range of Miele vacuum cleaners, featured text that stated "All Miele cylinder vacuums are tested to last for 20 years*". The asterisk linked to text that stated "*based on average usage of 45 minutes per week at maximum output".
Issue
Dyson Ltd challenged whether the claim "All Miele cylinder vacuums are tested to last for 20 years" was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
Miele Company Ltd said there was no standard measure for 20 years’ life of a vacuum cleaner. They said the claim was based on internal testing and provided test reports for their range of cylinder vacuum cleaners. However, they did not supply all documents relating to the test procedure. They acknowledged that the tests did not test the vacuum cleaner as a whole; rather they tested single parts of the product. Notwithstanding that, they believed the test reports demonstrated that a number of key elements of the products had been tested and demonstrated an average use of 20 years was achievable.
Miele said the ad made clear that the claim that their cylinder vacuums lasted 20 years was based on average usage of 45 minutes per week at the maximum output. They said that equated to 780 hours of usage and believed the test results provided demonstrated that.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered the claim "All Miele cylinder vacuums are tested to last for 20 years" would be interpreted by consumers to mean that it was very likely that Miele cylinder vacuums would still be working in 20 years time.
In the absence of all documents relating to the test procedure it was not possible to scrutinise fully the evidence provided, and we therefore considered that they had not provided sufficient evidence to substantiate the claim. We understood that the test reports on which the claim was based were accelerated laboratory tests. However, we considered that that was not made clear in the ad. We acknowledged that Miele had conducted such testing to ensure that their cylinder vacuums would last a long time. However, we considered it was unclear from the evidence provided whether Miele cylinder vacuums would last for 20 years in the home, or how likely it was that it would have a lifetime close to that figure.
On that basis, we were concerned that we had not seen sufficient evidence to support the claim "All Miele cylinder vacuums are tested to last for 20 years". We therefore concluded that the ad breached the Code.
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 Miele Company Ltd to ensure they held sufficient evidence to substantiate claims in future.
