Ad description
A Bid TV teleshopping broadcast on 20 January 2014 included a presentation for silver earrings. During the presentation the presenter made the following statements "You're not going to believe the price we can do these at. Black diamond, half hoop, beautiful with the butterfly clip, in Sterling Silver ..." and "Sterling silver, diamond £9.99. It's crazy isn't it?".
Issue
The complainant, who understood that the item was sliver plated, challenged whether the references to "sterling silver" were misleading.
Response
Sit-Up Ltd t/a Bid TV accepted that the presenter had made an error on air by saying that the product was "sterling silver" rather than "silver plated". They said that a formal internal investigation had been carried out and that subsequently the presenter would receive training and would be subject to monitoring to prevent similar incidents occurring again. They said they contacted all of the 65 customers who had purchased the product and offered them an apology and a refund, 11 of whom accepted.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA noted the references to "sterling silver" were made in error and that remedial action had been taken. Because the presenter referred to the earrings as "sterling silver" on several occasions when in fact they were silver plated, we considered that the ad exaggerated the quality of the featured product and therefore concluded that the ad was misleading.
The ad breached BCAP Code rules
3.1
3.1
Advertisements must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
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) and
3.12
3.12
Advertisements must not mislead by exaggerating the capability or performance of a product or service.
(Exaggeration).
Action
The ad should not appear again in its current form. We told Bid TV to take care not to exaggerate the quality of featured products.
