Ad description
A national press ad for Furniture Village Ltd showed a family on and around a "FABLE Large corner sofa". One child was shown on the floor playing with a toy and another child was seated on the sofa along with two adults.
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the image of the sofa was misleading, because they believed it had been digitally altered to appear larger than it really was.
Response
Furniture Village Ltd said the image of the "FABLE Large corner sofa" that appeared in the ad was not digitally altered in any way. They said the size of the product was not distorted and was a true representation of the sofa. They asked their photographer to supply the raw files of all the Fable photos taken and included these in their response. They also provided a copy of a statement from their photographer stating that no digital alterations had taken place on the sofa. The photographer said the composition was shot from a low angle with a super wide angle 28 mm lens, and this perspective may have made the model in the foreground look larger in proportion to the sofa. Furniture Village also provided a copy of the Fable product card, which showed all the dimensions of the range.
Assessment
Not upheld
The ASA noted that the complainant felt the size of the sofa in the ad had been exaggerated by digital alteration and the family looked small in comparison to the sofa. We acknowledged that the sofa appeared to be very large and the family seemed to take up little room on it. However, we considered that the man, woman and child on the sofa were sitting very close together. The man appeared to be sitting in a corner of the sofa with the woman overlapping with her legs bent beneath her on the sofa, which made them both look small. We considered the measurements provided by Furniture Village Ltd and were satisfied that the sofa was very large, and would comfortably seat a family much larger than the one pictured. We noted that the pictures displayed on Furniture Village's website and those provided by the photographer showed the same family sitting in different positions on the sofa. They also showed more of the room in which the sofa was placed, and the sofa did not appear out of proportion. We noted the photographer's assurance that the ad had not been digitally altered and we understood the type of lens used could have had an impact on the overall perspective. For those reasons, we were satisfied that the ad was not misleading.
We investigated the ad under CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading Advertising) and 3.11 3.11 Marketing communications must not mislead consumers by exaggerating the capability or performance of a product. (Exaggeration), but did not find it in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
