Ad description
A sponsored link, for a vehicle service, viewed on 25 June 2011, stated “£89 Full Citroen Service - Great savings on dealer prices”.
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the claim “£89 Full Citroen Service" was misleading, because he believed that a full service was not available at the advertised price.
Response
Servicing Stop stated that they were able to provide a full service on a Citroen Dyane for £89. They provided the ASA with an invoice which showed that. They also referred the ASA to their website which showed that a full service for a Citroen Dyane was available for £89.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA acknowledged that the offer applied only to the Citroen Dyane. However, we noted that that had not been made clear in the ad. We considered that, in the absence of such a qualification, consumers were likely to interpret the ad to mean that the offer applied to all current Citroen models. We were therefore concerned that the offer applied only to the Citroen Dyane, which we understood had not been in production since 1983. Since the ad did not make clear the models to which the offer applied, 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.
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),
3.9
3.9
Marketing communications must state significant limitations and qualifications. Qualifications may clarify but must not contradict the claims that they qualify.
(Qualification) and
3.17
3.17
Price statements must not mislead by omission, undue emphasis or distortion. They must relate to the product featured in the marketing communication.
(Prices).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Servicing Stop to ensure that they made clear all significant qualifications in future.
