Ad description
A competition on www.missminiprincess.co.uk stated "USA Style Beauty Pageant with a British Attitude! Miss Mini Princess UK is soon to become the biggest and best children's beauty pageant to come out of the uk! [sic]". The "Pageant Process" page stated "The entry process consists of filling in an [sic] quick online application ... We will then go through the thousands of online applications and choose 100 finalists! The 100 girls will then be invited to a glamorous princess photo shoot ...".
Issue
Ray Hoppkrofft challenged whether the competition should have included a correspondence address for the advertiser.
Response
Miss Mini Princess UK (MMP UK) acknowledged the complaint and said they would make changes to the website in order to make it compliant with the CAP Code, but they did not respond further to our enquiries.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA noted the competition did not include a correspondence address for the advertiser, which was a requirement under the CAP Code. Despite their initial assurance that they would amend their advertising to ensure that it complied with the Code, no amendments were forthcoming and MMP UK did not respond further to our enquiries. We were concerned by MMP UK's lack of 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 respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
We considered that, because the competition did not include a correspondence address, it breached the Code.
The competition breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
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) and
8.17.9
8.17.9
Promoter's name and address
Unless it is obvious from the context or if entry into an advertised promotion is only through a dedicated website containing that information in an easily found format, the promoter's full name and correspondence address must be stated.
(Sales promotions).
Action
The competition must not appear again in its current form. We told MMP UK to ensure that they included a correspondence address in future competitions.
