Collection bags for unwanted clothes, shoes and bric-a-brac which are posted through letterboxes may offer recipients the perfect opportunity to have a spring clean. Those that support charities also offer a simple way to help good causes too. CAP has published guidance on how to make sure consumers understand where their donations are going and what charities will receive.
Guidance in the bag
Our Compliance team has published new guidance for commercial participants in door-to-door charitable collections. To help ensure as many distributors as possible are aware of what they need to do, the team has also enlisted the help of local government and councils to spread the word. Advertisers are required to make sure the claims on their bags are in line with the guidance by 2 June 2017.
This guidance comes on the back of an ASA investigation in 2016, where a complaint about a clothing collection bag was upheld. Because there was no mention of the advertiser’s name or company status on the front of the bag and the charity name and number were given more prominence on the back, the ASA concluded that consumers were likely to be given the misleading impression that they were donating directly to charity.
Don’t be shy about coming forward
It’s fine to show the name and logo of the charity which will benefit from donations, but it must be obvious that there’s a commercial nature to the collection too. Our new guidance explains that marketers must make their company name at least as prominent as the charity who benefit from the collection, for example by putting “Company X Ltd’ collecting in association with “Charity Y” or similar.
Cover all angles
Commercial participants should make sure their company name is clear on both sides of the bag. Again, on both sides, the company name and reference to its commercial status should be given equal or greater prominence to the charity name, to ensure recipients know if a proportion of the profits from the sale of donated goods will go to good causes, rather than their donations going directly to charity.
Bag for life
If you need further advice or guidance on this now or in the future, the CAP Copy Advice team are on hand to give free bespoke advice.
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