Littlewoods Shop Direct Home Shopping Ltd t/a Choice Skyways House Speke Road Speke Liverpool L70 1AB Affinion International Ltd Charter Court 50 Windsor Road Slough Berkshire SL1 2EJ Number of complaints: 1

Date: 13 August 2008 Media: Direct mail Sector: Business

Ad
A direct mailing from Choice, for PrivacyGuard®, consisted of a brown envelope, a letter and an application form.  The envelope stated "choice IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING CREDIT FRAUD".  The letter stated "FREE CREDIT REPORT ... Dear X ... Every year thousands of individuals can fall prey to credit fraud, and a growing number to identity fraud ... Sign and return the enclosed form today to be entitled to your Free Credit Report when you apply for PrivacyGuard® ... With PrivacyGuard®, you'll receive more than just your Credit Report.  You can also get access to your Credit Score ... When you sign and return the enclosed form ... you will receive a 30 day trial in PrivacyGuard®, free.  With PrivacyGuard® you'll also get Credit Alert ... Plus, you'll also receive Identity Fraud Insurance ... As soon as you sign and return the enclosed application form, we'll send your PrivacyGuard® membership pack out to you within 10-15 days ... Unless you contact us to withdraw your application, or we contact you in the event we are unable to accept your application, your membership and 30 day free trial will commence approximately 5 days later and a monthly membership fee of £6.99 ... will be billed to your Choice catalogue account, at the end of your free trial period, without you having to do anything further.  Your membership automatically continues unless you contact us ... to cancel ...".

Issue
One complainant thought the envelope suggested it contained official information, did not make clear it was an ad and could cause undue anxiety to recipients by exaggerating the importance of its contents.

The CAP Code:

7.1;9.1;22.1

Response
Affinion International (Affinion) explained that the direct mailing was a joint marketing promotion conducted in association with their marketing partner, Choice.  They accepted responsibility for the envelope, although they had notified Choice of the complaint.  The mailing was sent to existing Choice customers who had consented to receive marketing information from Choice and carefully selected third parties.  Affinion believed recipients of the mailing were familiar with the Choice brand, because they held a catalogue shopping account with Choice and therefore received periodic statements as well as marketing communications branded by Choice in the post.  They argued that, given the presence of the Choice logo on the envelope as well as recipients expectation to receive marketing material from Choice, it would be immediately clear to recipients that the mailing marketed products and services offered by Choice or by third parties selected by Choice.

Affinion said the envelope stated "IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING CREDIT FRAUD" because the letter contained the claim "Every year thousands of individuals can fall prey to credit fraud, and a growing number to identity fraud".  They said that statement was correct because there were 77,593 reported victims of ID fraud in the UK in 2007 according to CIFAS, the UKs Fraud Prevention Service.  They also stated that, according to figures from the UK banking industry association APACS, total credit card fraud losses increased by 26% in the first half of 2007 compared with the first half of 2006.  They therefore believed the envelopes claim to contain important information about credit fraud was justified.

Affinion were concerned by the suggestion that the envelope could cause undue anxiety to recipients.  Although they disagreed with that suggestion, they said they took the complaint seriously and would therefore contact the CAP Copy Advice team about possible alternative wording on the envelope.

Assessment
Not upheld
The ASA noted the envelope prominently stated "choice" and "IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING CREDIT FRAUD".

Although we noted the complainant was a Kays Catalogue customer, not a Choice customer, we understood that most recipients of the mailing would be familiar with the Choice brand and would have previously received marketing communications from Choice.  We also considered that, even if recipients were not Choice customers or were not familiar with Choice, they were likely to infer that "choice" was a brand name or trading name and therefore that the mailing was a piece of advertising.

We noted the reverse of the envelope stated "If undelivered please return to: PrivacyGuard® ..."; we considered that "PrivacyGuard®" suggested a registered trademark and was unlikely to be seen as relating to an official body.

Although we considered that, on its own, the claim "IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING CREDIT FRAUD" would have been likely to misleadingly imply that the envelope contained official information, the prominent inclusion of the Choice logo counteracted that impression, because the logo was likely to suggest that the envelope contained marketing material and therefore that the "IMPORTANT INFORMATION" was generic rather than personal or private, thereby reducing the envelopes potential to mislead about its contents and the likelihood of it causing anxiety.

We concluded that the envelope did make clear it was an ad and was therefore unlikely to suggest it contained official information or to cause undue anxiety to recipients by exaggerating the importance of its contents.

We investigated the ad under CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness), 9.1 (Fear and distress) and 22.1 (Recognising marketing communications) but did not find it in breach.

Action
No further action necessary.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)