Ad description
A website for The Snooty Fox hotel, www.thesnootyfox.com, seen on 4 August 2018, included an image with the AA logo and the text “AA 4*”.
Issue
The complainant, who believed that The Snooty Fox did not have an AA 4* rating, challenged whether the ad was misleading.
Response
The Snooty Fox acknowledged the complaint, but did not submit a substantive response to the ASA’s enquiries.
Assessment
The ASA was concerned by The Snooty Fox’s lack of substantive response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of 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 provide a substantive response to our enquiries and told them to do so in the future.
Upheld
We considered that consumers would understand from the inclusion of the AA logo and star rating in the ad that The Snooty Fox had received a four star endorsement from the AA’s hotel rating scheme. The Snooty Fox did not provide any evidence that they had received that endorsement and the AA did not list the hotel on its website or state that it had awarded The Snooty Fox a four star rating. We therefore concluded that the ad was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 3.50 3.50 Marketing communications must not display a trust mark, quality mark or equivalent without the necessary authorisation. Marketing communications must not claim that the marketer (or any other entity referred to), the marketing communication or the advertised product has been approved, endorsed or authorised by any public or other body if it has not or without complying with the terms of the approval, endorsement or authorisation. (Endorsements and testimonials).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained about. We told The Snooty Fox not to claim or imply that they had received an endorsement if they had not. We referred the matter to the CAP Compliance team.
