Ad description

A TV ad and a video shown on Co-op Funeralcare’s YouTube channel, seen between October 2016 and February 2017:

a. The TV ad featured scenes of an older man with his tractor engine. The man was shown driving his tractor while a voice-over stated, “Unlike some funeral plan providers, Co-op Funeralcare cover all the costs of your chosen burial or cremation plan, because we believe your loved ones shouldn’t be left with any surprise bills”. The final scene showed the man with family members discussing his future plans of leaving them his tractor. The voice-over stated, “To leave them something they will appreciate, talk to us about our fully guaranteed funeral plans, which start from just £2995. Co-op Funeralcare, here for you when you need us most.”

b. The YouTube video featured scenes of an older man with his tractor engine. The man was shown driving his tractor while a voice-over stated, “Unlike some funeral plans, Co-op Funeralcare promise to cover all the costs of your chosen burial or cremation, so your loved ones shouldn’t be left with any surprise bills”. The final scene showed the man with family members discussing his future plans of leaving them his tractor. The voice-over stated, “To leave them something they will appreciate, talk to us about our fully guaranteed plans that are held at last year's prices. Co-op Funeralcare, here for you when you need us most.”

Issue

Dignity UK, a funeral services provider, who understood that Co-op Funeralcare plans did not include the cost of purchasing a burial plot, challenged whether the claims “…cover all costs of your chosen burial or cremation plan” and “fully guaranteed funeral plans” were misleading

Response

Funeral Services Ltd t/a Co-op Funeralcare confirmed that the cost of purchasing a burial plot was not included in their funeral plans. They said that their plans included the burial or interment free, gravedigger fee, church service and Minister fee or Officiant’s fees (known as the “burial services”).

Co-op Funeralcare stated that the claim “fully guaranteed” meant that they would guarantee that a customer would not have to pay anything else for the services included in their funeral plan. They provided a comparison table of the five main UK Funeral provider’s position on providing fully guaranteed funeral plans. The comparison table demonstrated that some of the other providers either offered a fixed contribution towards the funeral costs or did not guarantee that they would cover any services that increased in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI). They confirmed that some of their competitors offered fully guaranteed plans for cremations, but not for burials.

Co-op Funeralcare also provided forecast data which had been carried out by an

independent company. The data showed that the price of funeral services had increased since 2007 and they predicted that they would continue to increase in coming years. Co-op argued that this information highlighted the distinction between their fully guaranteed funeral plans which covered the rising costs from their competitor’s plans, which did not cover all of those costs.

Co-op Funeralcare highlighted that they had never claimed to “cover all costs” associated with a funeral - the claim was followed by “of your chosen burial or cremation plan”.

They stated that as prices and availability of burial plots vary across the UK, it was industry practice not to include the cost of a burial plot within a funeral plan. They provided their own examples of burial plot prices throughout the UK. The information demonstrated that prices varied from £100 up to £4915. They stated that the price variations showed the impracticality of including the cost of a burial plot in a funeral plan.

Co-op Funeralcare said that the YouTube video included a link to their website comparison page in the description box. They said that the comparison page clearly stated that the cost of a burial plot was not included in their plans. They stated that as the comparison link was one click away from the ad, they did not consider the ad was misleading.

Clearcast said that they understood that Co-op Funeralcare would guarantee that the full cost of a person’s chosen funeral plan would be covered, and that should third- party expenses rise outside of their control, these would also be covered by Co-op Funeralcare.

Clearcast said that the claims did not state that 100% of all costs associated with a funeral would be covered. They said that they had sought assurance with regards to the comparative element of the claim. They said that Co-op Funeralcare had demonstrated that in some cases, using a different funeral plan provider could mean that unavoidable costs were not included in a funeral plan. They said that they were therefore satisfied that Co-Op Funeralcare would cover and guarantee all the costs in a customer’s chosen funeral plan.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA considered that many consumers would not be aware that a burial plot was not generally included within funeral plans, including those provided by Co-op Funeralcare.

However, we noted that the claim “cover all the costs” was followed by “of your chosen burial or cremation plan”. We noted that the word “chosen” suggested to viewers that they were able to select and therefore control the services they wanted to include in their funeral plan. We considered that the claim as a whole would be understood to mean that Co-op Funeralcare would pay for the services within a customer’s selected plan even if those prices rose between the time they took out the plan and the time of redemption, rather than that they would pay for all costs associated with a funeral.

We understood that Co-op Funeralcare would ensure that their customers would not have to pay any more for the services detailed in their chosen plan, even if the costs had increased, for example, in line with RPI. The information provided indicated that was not the case with all of their competitors.

Because we considered that the ad did not imply that Co-op Funeralcare would cover all costs associated with a funeral, but rather the costs associated with a customer’s chosen funeral plan, which was not the case for all of their competitors, we concluded that both ads were not misleading.

We investigated ad (a) under BCAP Code rules  3.1 3.1 Advertisements must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.  and  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  3.9 3.9 Broadcasters must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that the audience is 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.  and  3.10 3.10 Advertisements must state significant limitations and qualifications. Qualifications may clarify but must not contradict the claims that they qualify.  (Substantiation), but did not find it in breach. We investigated ad (b) under CAP Code (Edition 12) rules  3.1 3.1 Advertisements 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  3.9 3.9 Broadcasters must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that the audience is 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.  (Qualification), but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

BCAP Code

3.1     3.10     3.2     3.9    

CAP Code (Edition 12)

3.1     3.3     3.9    


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