Ad description
The home page for the website for Break Point PR www.breakpointpr.com, seen on 1 November 2017 featured logos for a range of companies under the heading “Trusted by”. The same page under the heading “What they say” featured quotes from customers, one of which stated “Creative, young and energetic team I trust with our PR activity and launch events. They’re passionate about what they do and it’s reflected in the results” and was attributed to the marketing director of one of the featured companies.
Issue
Fuel PR International, who understood the testimonials related to work undertaken when the advertiser was their employee, challenged whether the testimonials in the ad were misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
Break Point PR Ltd acknowledged the complaint but did not provide a substantive response.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered that businesses would understand the headings “Trusted by” and “What they say” to mean the companies whose logos were featured and whose representatives were quoted had used Break Point PR’s services and given them permission to use their logos and testimonials about the advertiser’s service. We considered businesses would not expect the logos and testimonials to refer to work undertaken by an employee of Break Point PR when they were with a previous employer. Because Break Point PR had not provided us with any evidence to prove that the shown the logos and testimonials related to work carried out by Break Point PR or that they had permission to use them, we concluded the ad was misleading.
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), 3.45 3.45 Marketers must hold documentary evidence that a testimonial or endorsement used in a marketing communication is genuine, unless it is obviously fictitious, and hold contact details for the person who, or organisation that, gives it. and 3.48 3.48 Marketing communications must not feature a testimonial without permission; exceptions are normally made for accurate statements taken from a published source, quotations from a publication or references to a test, trial, professional endorsement, research facility or professional journal, which may be acceptable without express permission. (Endorsements and testimonials).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Break Point PR to ensure that their future advertising did not imply that they had undertaken work for companies when they had not, and to remove the logos and testimonials from companies that had not given them express permission for use.
