Ad description
A website for Logo Design Guarantee, www.logodesignguarantee.co.uk, seen in March 2017, included text which stated "Designed by a UK in-house team".
Issue
The complainant, who believed the "Designed by a UK in-house team" implied the service was based in the United Kingdom but understood it was not, challenged whether the ad was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
Logo Design Guarantee did not respond to the ASA’s enquiries.
Assessment
The ASA was concerned by Logo Design Guarantee’s lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, and ruled that they had breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 1.7 Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code. (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in the future.
Upheld
We considered that consumers would understand the claim “Designed by a UK in-house team” to mean that the design team was based in the United Kingdom. However, we understood the complainant was told by one of the advertiser’s customer service representatives that the company was based in the United States.
Because Logo Design Guarantee had not provided any evidence to demonstrate their service was based in the United Kingdom, we therefore concluded that the claim 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) and 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).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Logo Design Guarantee to ensure their future advertising did not misleadingly imply their service was based in the United Kingdom. We referred the matter to the CAP Compliance team.
