Ad description
Dynamite Dance Academy UK's Facebook page included a message, posted by the advertiser, that stated "The Northwests [sic] No.1 Dance School".
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the claim "The Northwests [sic] No.1 Dance School" was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
John Pemberton trading as Dynamite Dance spoke to the ASA by telephone and stated that they did not intend to formally respond to the ASA's enquiries. They said they held evidence to substantiate the claim, but did not have the time to compile and submit it to the ASA.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered that consumers would understand the claim "The Northwests [sic] No.1 Dance School" to mean that the school had a higher turnover than other dance schools in the North West. Because we had not seen any evidence to show that that was the case, we concluded that 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), 3.7 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 3.11 3.11 Marketing communications must not mislead consumers by exaggerating the capability or performance of a product. (Exaggeration).
Action
The claim must not appear again in its current form. We told Dynamite Dance to ensure they held evidence to substantiate their marketing claims in future.
