Background

Ad description

A radio ad, for a promotion on double glazing, appeared in April 2011. The voice-over stated “... but it’s only this week, so you’ll have to hurry ... This week only, hurry hurry ...”

Issue

A listener challenged whether the ad misleadingly implied the offer was limited to one week, because he understood the ad had appeared for longer than a week.

Response

Safestyle UK Ltd (Safestyle) said the ad had run for one week from 21 to 27 March 2011. It had been successful in generating leads and was therefore repeated for another week from 11 to 17 April. Following both weeks, the ad was replaced by a different ad; one from 28 March and another from 18 April. They said the offers were therefore limited to a week only, as stated in the ad, with a clear period of two weeks before the promotion was offered again. They said they had considered two weeks to be a reasonable period and the time limit for the offer was genuine each time the ad was broadcast. Safestyle provided a copy of their instructions to broadcasters for the relevant weeks.

talkSport confirmed the dates the ad had appeared. They said they understood the limited offer to be genuine, in particular because the second week for the offer was not booked at the same time as the first but on 6 April, subsequent to the initial promotion. They said the ad had been aired on talkSport for the two promotional weeks only and that they were unaware of plans to repeat it in the future.

The RACC said the ad was cleared as part of a batch of scripts, subject to the condition that the references to “one week” must be fully justified and that the offer would be withdrawn once the period had passed.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA noted the offer had been extended following the initial promotional period. We also noted, however, that at the time the ad initially appeared the offer was available for only that week. We noted that when the ad appeared for the second time, two weeks after the end of the initial promotional period, the offer was also available for only that week. Because the offer was available for “one week only” at the times the ad appeared, we concluded that the ad was not misleading.

We investigated the ad under BCAP Code rules  3.1 3.1 Advertisements must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.  (Misleading advertising) and  3.31 3.31 Advertisements must not falsely claim that the advertiser is about to stop trading or move premises. They must not falsely state that a product or service, or the terms on which it is offered, will be available only for a very limited time to deprive consumers of the time or opportunity to make an informed choice.  (Availability) but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

BCAP Code

3.1     3.31    


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