Ad description
A website for Clean Solar Solutions solar panel cleaning services, www.solar-panel-cleaners.com, featured a counter graphic on the home page which increased by one digit approximately every second. Text underneath the graphic stated "We have cleaned well over 55,500 solar panels across the UK".
Issue
The complainant, who did not believe that the advertiser could substantiate that on average they cleaned one solar panel every second, challenged whether the counter graphic was misleading.
Response
Clean Solar Solutions Ltd said that the counter graphic was merely illustrative and indicative of the fact that they continued to clean a large number of solar panels. They said it was not intended to communicate that they cleaned on average one solar panel every second, but that such a rate would be possible if a large team were cleaning at the same time on a large installation. They said the counter reset every time the page was refreshed and was set to start at the actual number of panels they had cleaned, which demonstrated it was for illustrative purposes rather than showing real-time figures. They said that if it was real-time, and so kept increasing at that rate, it would have increased to 604,800 after one week and 31 million after one year. They also said this would mean the counter had only started 15.4 hours ago. They said that such an average rate was implausible.
Assessment
Not upheld
The counter graphic increased by approximately one digit every second. However, because the counter restarted every time the home page was refreshed, and consumers were unlikely to stay on that one web page for a lengthy period of time, the number displayed was unlikely to increase significantly and therefore go beyond the actual number of panels cleaned. Text underneath the counter graphic clearly stated "We have cleaned well over 55,500 solar panels across the UK" and the ASA therefore considered consumers would see the graphic in that context, rather than as a real-time counter, and that it was therefore unlikely to mislead the average consumer. We concluded that the counter graphic was not misleading.
We investigated the ad under 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) and 3.11 3.11 Marketing communications must not mislead consumers by exaggerating the capability or performance of a product. (Exaggeration), but did not find it in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
