Ad description
A website for The Car People, www.thecarpeople.co.uk, seen in November 2017, stated “Our hand picked cars… All our cars are quality checked by 8 specialists”.
Issue
The complainant, who had requested information on which specialists had looked at their car but did not receive a response, challenged whether the ad was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
The Car People Ltd responded that all their cars were checked by eight specialists. They said that these specialists were buyers who chose the cars, inspectors who checked cars when they arrived, road testers who road tested the vehicles after they had completed mechanical checks, cosmetic repairers, a valet quality check, display checkers who checked the cars prior to display, a final quality checker who gave the car a once over to ensure it was ready to be handed over after purchase and a hand-over team who gave the car a once over when a customer arrived to collect the vehicle. They stated that all relevant staff members would be aware of who the eight specialists were and what checks were involved so that customers could be informed. They did not provide evidence of which members of staff checked the complainant’s car.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered that consumers would understand the claim, which appeared in a box titled “Our hand picked cars”, to mean that specialists were involved in the selection, preparation and testing of the car. Therefore, we considered that consumers would understand from the context of the ad that the specialists would have a level of demonstrable expertise, such as being qualified mechanics to ensure that the cars were in good condition. Because the ad stated that a specific number of specialists checked each vehicle, we considered that consumers would generally expect that a record would be kept of who had checked their cars.
We considered that some of the checks carried out by The Car People suggested they were done by technical specialists, such as buyers and inspectors. However, we considered that consumers would not generally view some of the checks, for example the check by the hand-over team, as being undertaken by a “specialist”.
Because The Car People did not demonstrate what specialist skills or function that the members of staff who carried out each quality check held, 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) 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 should not appear again in its current form. We told The Car People Ltd not to state that its vehicles were checked by “specialists” unless they held evidence that they were checked by members of staff with particular expertise in fields that would be viewed by consumers as “specialist”.
