Ad description
A national press ad, for a furniture retailer, stated "28 years manufacturing experience".
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the claim "28 years manufacturing experience" was misleading and could be substantiated, because he believed the company was only incorporated in March 2011 and that they did not manufacture the products they supplied.
Response
Westminster Recliners (WR) said they did not believe the claim was misleading, because their contract manufacturer was established in 1981 and therefore had in excess of 28 year's manufacturing experience.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA acknowledged the products supplied by WR may have been manufactured by a party with the relevant amount of experience, but we considered that the ad implied that WR manufactured the products they sold and therefore they had 28 years’ experience. Because that was not the case, 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 must not appear again in its current form. We told WR to ensure they did not imply that they manufactured the products they supplied, when this was not the case.
