Ad description
An ad on a web page, for www.getdigitalradio.com, headed "What is Digital Radio?", included the claim "Hiss and crackle-free sound".
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the claim misleadingly exaggerated the sound quality of digital radio broadcasts, which they understood could be affected by interference.
Response
Digital Radio UK (DRUK) said that the signal of analogue radio transmissions gradually faded towards the edge of coverage areas until it got lost in background noise, such as hisses and crackles; that could also happen in reception blackspots inside coverage areas. As the signal faded, so did the audio signal from the radio. They said DAB radio did not hiss or crackle, even in areas of bad coverage. Because DAB was a digital technology, the signal was always the same right up to the coverage limit, when the sound would cut out. If a DAB listener was on the fringes of DAB coverage, they might not get a clear signal but that was a product of not being in a good coverage area rather than the sound quality of DAB itself.
DRUK referenced a previous adjudication about their advertising in which the ASA had accepted that signal interference leading to hissing and crackling was something that might affect analogue but not digital radio. They had therefore considered that the term "hiss and crackle free" was justified, and they had been using that claim for some time.
Assessment
Not upheld
The ASA noted the statement "Hiss and crackle free sound" was a limited claim rather than a general claim about the sound quality of DAB radio, and we noted that the ad did not make any other claims in relation to sound quality. We understood that DAB radio did not hiss or crackle although, at the fringes of areas of digital coverage, the sound might have a 'burbling' quality. We noted the website included a web page which allowed users to check coverage in their area, and we also noted that both that page and a 'Frequently Asked Questions' page included text which highlighted that DAB coverage and reception depended on where the listener was. We concluded the claim "Hiss and crackle free sound", both on its own and in context with other information on the website, did not exaggerate the sound quality of DAB.
We investigated the ad under 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) and
3.11
3.11
Marketing communications must not mislead consumers by exaggerating the capability or performance of a product.
(Exaggeration) but did not find it in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
