Background

Summary of Council decision:

Four issues were investigated, all of which were Upheld.

Ad description

A brochure ad, for heaters, included various claims and images that related to the way the product was intended to work and its claimed benefits. They included claims, and accompanying diagrams, that using the product would result in "no more cold feet". Further claims included "With rising gas prices there is an overwhelming demand for an affordable, efficient, reliable and fully controllable heating system", "Quick and easy installation … by simply plugging into a 13 amp domestic socket, without the need for additional wiring or fuse boxes", "The rise in prices of gas and oil means it is uneconomical to leave central heating on all the time", "Conventional storage heaters … waste energy by pushing the warm air up to the ceiling, instead of circulating it around the room. This allows the cold air to stay on the floor and lower the temperature of the room", "Gas/oil central heating with boilers and pipes is not exactly efficient … There is a massive heat loss from the pipes …" and "In the entire life span of the Fischer system - would cost less than a Gas System".

Issue

The complainant challenged whether the claims:

1. that the heaters would mean "no more cold feet", and about the way conventional storage heaters worked, were misleading, because he understood all convector heaters worked in the same way;

2. about rising gas and oil prices, and the comparative cost of a Fisher system to gas systems, were misleading, because he understood electricity costs were also rising and might continue to do so in the future;

3. "There is a massive heat loss from the pipes …" misleadingly exaggerated the loss from pipes in gas and oil systems; and

4. "This enables them to be installed quickly and easily by simply plugging into a 13 amp domestic socket" was misleading, because he had been informed that a Fischer system should be wired to a separate ring main.

Response

1. Fischer Future Heat UK Ltd said conventional night storage heaters, which were sealed units packed with bricks, and which had a vent at the top, were noticeably hot at the top and cold at the bottom. It was commonly known that a frequent complaint about such heaters was that users could find their feet were cold. However, their products also had a vent at the bottom, which sucked cold air in. In addition, they positioned thermostats at hip height, rather than head height, in order to ensure the temperature was measured at less than one metre from the ground. They provided test data, which they believed demonstrated that their products heated a room evenly from floor to ceiling.

2. Fischer Future Heat said they did not deny that electricity prices had also risen. They marketed their product on the basis that electricity prices had risen, and would continue to rise. While that was outside of consumers' control, there were ways they could use less energy, including by using a highly efficient heater such as theirs. They commented that gas prices had risen more quickly than electricity prices and therefore heating homes electronically remained the more economical option.

3. They said that pipes were one of the main points of heat loss for gas and oil systems. Most such pipes were in areas that were not insulated, such as under floorboards, or in lofts, and the ad provided only information that consumers were already aware of.

4. They said the heaters could be plugged into a 13-amp socket. However, in some cases further work needed to be carried out as a result of the electrics in a particular property. If the heater had to be wired to a separate ring main that was because the household already had too much load on the main circuit.

They believed all of the claims were accurate and not misleading.

Assessment

1. Upheld

The ad made several claims that users of the heaters would not experience cold feet and that the products worked differently to conventional storage heaters, which allowed cold air to stay at floor level. The ASA noted the data submitted by Fischer Future Heat, which related to temperatures measured at various heights in a room. We were concerned that further details, such as on the methodology of the testing, had not been provided but nevertheless considered that temperature readings that started at 30 cm above floor level, and which were taken over one 16-hour period, were not sufficient to demonstrate that Fischer Future Heat heater users generally would not experience cold feet. In addition, we had not received comparative evidence to demonstrate the claimed effects on cold feet in relation to conventional storage heaters. Because the claims had not been adequately substantiated, we concluded that the ad breached the Code.

On that point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules  3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.  and  3.3 3.3 Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer 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 the consumer needs to make informed decisions in relation to a product. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead the consumer depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the marketing communication is constrained by time or space, the measures that the marketer takes to make that information available to the consumer by other means.
 (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  3.38 3.38 Marketing communications that include a comparison with an unidentifiable competitor must not mislead, or be likely to mislead, the consumer. The elements of the comparison must not be selected to give the marketer an unrepresentative advantage.  (Other comparisons).

2. Upheld

We considered, particularly in the context of advertising that made claims about the benefits of electric heaters, claims such as "With rising gas prices there is an overwhelming demand for an affordable, efficient, reliable and fully controllable heating system" and "The rise in prices of gas and oil means it is uneconomical to leave central heating on all the time" were likely to be interpreted as suggesting electricity prices were not also rising, and the advertised heaters were therefore more economical to use. We also considered the claim "In the entire life span of the Fischer system - would cost less than a Gas System" was likely to be understood to relate to such costs as initial purchase and maintenance, but also to mean that running costs using electricity were, and were likely to continue to be, less than for gas systems.

Although we noted Fischer Future Heat believed their heaters were in any case relatively economical when compared to gas and oil systems, we considered the fact that electricity prices were increasing was material information consumers needed in order to make an informed decision about the products. Because that was not made clear, and because we had not seen comparative evidence related to the lifetime costs of the systems, we concluded that the claims were misleading.

On that point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules  3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.  and  3.3 3.3 Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer 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 the consumer needs to make informed decisions in relation to a product. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead the consumer depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the marketing communication is constrained by time or space, the measures that the marketer takes to make that information available to the consumer by other means.
 (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  3.38 3.38 Marketing communications that include a comparison with an unidentifiable competitor must not mislead, or be likely to mislead, the consumer. The elements of the comparison must not be selected to give the marketer an unrepresentative advantage.  (Other comparisons).

3. Upheld

In the context of claims about the benefits, including the claimed efficiency, of the advertised heaters, and particularly of the text "Gas/oil central heating with boilers and pipes is not exactly efficient …", we considered the claim "There is a massive heat loss from the pipes …" was likely to be interpreted as suggesting the Fischer Future Heat products offered increased efficiency via reduced heat loss. We noted we had not seen evidence to demonstrate that there was "massive heat loss from the pipes" in gas and oil central heating systems, when compared to the advertised products. We therefore concluded that the claim was misleading.

On that point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules  3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.  and  3.3 3.3 Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer 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 the consumer needs to make informed decisions in relation to a product. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead the consumer depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the marketing communication is constrained by time or space, the measures that the marketer takes to make that information available to the consumer by other means.
 (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  3.38 3.38 Marketing communications that include a comparison with an unidentifiable competitor must not mislead, or be likely to mislead, the consumer. The elements of the comparison must not be selected to give the marketer an unrepresentative advantage.  (Other comparisons).

4. Upheld

We understood that, dependent on the electrics of a particular property, there were instances in which it was not possible to install the products "quickly and easily by simply plugging into a 13 amp domestic socket". However, we considered the claim, which was absolute, would be understood to mean that installation could in all instances be carried out by plugging the heaters into a 13-amp socket. Because that was not the case, and that was not made clear in the ad, we concluded that the claim was misleading.

On that point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules  3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.  and  3.3 3.3 Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer 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 the consumer needs to make informed decisions in relation to a product. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead the consumer depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the marketing communication is constrained by time or space, the measures that the marketer takes to make that information available to the consumer by other means.
 (Misleading advertising) and  3.11 3.11 Marketing communications must not mislead consumers by exaggerating the capability or performance of a product.  (Exaggeration).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Fischer Future Heat UK Ltd to ensure they were in a position to adequately substantiate future objective claims, including comparative claims. We also told them to ensure their future marketing communications did not mislead by omitting material information.

CAP Code (Edition 12)

3.1     3.11     3.3     3.38     3.7    


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