Ad description
A post on the Knights Templar International Facebook page, dated and seen on 15 March 2015, stated "After 900 years the Templars have seen it all- It is time you stood in our ancient and reforming ranks" and directed readers to the organisation's website.
Issue
The complainant, who understood that Knights Templar International were not formally connected with the historic Knights Templar order but believed the ad implied that they were and that they shared a 900-year history, challenged whether the ad was misleading.
Response
Knights Templar International (KTI) said that they had not come across anyone raising this concern before. They said the history of the original Poor Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem (commonly known as the Knights Templar) and their demise was well known, and that their story featured often in TV programmes, news reports, video games and films. They therefore did not believe that it would be reasonable for people to associate the modern KTI with the ancient and disbanded French order from almost 1000 years in the past.
KTI said their website and Facebook page carried disclaimers noting that they were not associated formally with the medieval Knights Templar. The Facebook page gave their launch date of 2015 and stated "NOVUS ORDO MILITIAE. Knights Templar: A modern order for the world of today. Modern, real, vibrant and active". Both this page and the website stated that they followed the traditions and ideals of the medieval Order "… but we make no claims to be direct inheritors of their noble history as others foolishly do ... Ours is a modern Order". As such, they said it had never been their intention to imply any direct lineage to the medieval Order, that they did not believe any of their ads or memes did so, and that they had never been confronted with someone who thought they were claiming to be a 1000-year-old organisation. They stated that no reasonable person would be confused between the modern KTI and the medieval Order that had been very publically disbanded 800 years ago.
Assessment
Not upheld
The ad appeared as a post on the KTI Facebook page, and the ASA considered that those seeing the ad would therefore be generally familiar with the nature of the organisation. We considered consumers would interpret the overall message of the ad and the page as inviting people to become members if they had concerns about the values and ideals espoused in British society. We considered that the decision to find out more about membership or to join KTI constituted a transactional decision and that any material information likely to affect such a decision in context should therefore be available in the ad.
We considered that consumers acting on an interest in membership as a result of seeing the ad would do so primarily on the basis that the organisation reflected their personal beliefs and values, and that the nature of KTI was therefore the key factor in the decision to find out more or to join. As such, we considered that information relating to the modernity of the organisation and clarity about whether or not they were formally linked to the original Templar Order was unlikely to affect this decision and, consequently, that in this context it was not misleading to omit it.
The above notwithstanding, we considered the ad made a broad link between KTI and the medieval Templars but that, in the context of the page on which it appeared, this would not be understood as a claim that the two organisations had a formal shared history or that by joining KTI one would become a member of the historic Order. In light of the above factors, we considered that the ad was not misleading and concluded that it did not, therefore, breach the Code.
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.
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), but did not find it in breach.
Action
No further action required.
