Ad description
Two ads on a recruitment website:
a. The first advertised an Event Marketing and Sales Assistant job. Text stated "£300 - £550 weekly OTE - Permanen".
b. The second advertised an Event Marketing Assistant job. Text stated "Salary: £16,000 to £26,000 per annum (OTE) - Job type: Permanent".
Issue
A complainant, who went for a job interview for the positions, challenged whether the ads were misleading because they did not make clear that the main part of the job was door-to-door sales.
Response
Iconic Strategies Ltd said the work did not involve door-to-door sales but event-based sales and retail promotions, which they believed was made clear by the titles of the ads and the descriptions contained within them. They supplied an extract from the brochure which was given to clients and job candidates and an extract from the printed information on their website which explained the different kinds of marketing activity in which the company was and was not involved.
Assessment
Not upheld
The ASA noted that ad (a) was headed "EVENT MARKETING AND SALES ASSISTANT", that ad (b) was headed "EVENT MARKETING ASSISTANT" and that text that followed in both ads referred to working in a team of sales people; working with customers and presenting products and services to customers face-to-face. We considered both ads suggested that the work involved face-to-face sales. We also noted that the written statements in the brochure, which was given to clients as well as to candidates, referred to promotional events being set up "in ... places like shopping malls, retail parks and places where we can do in-store promotions face-to-face", while the statements on the company's website listed door-to-door sales as one of the marketing activities that the company did not take part in. Listed under the heading "What We Do" were event marketing, in-store promotions, in-store sales, on-site promotional activity, one-to-one presentations and face-to-face. We considered it was clear that the company did not offer door-to-door marketing activity as a service to clients and sought to distance itself from it. While we could not explain the experience reported by the complainant, we nevertheless considered Iconic Strategies Ltd had demonstrated that the work did not involve door-to-door sales. Because of that, we concluded that the ads were unlikely to mislead.
We investigated the ads 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);
3.9
3.9
Marketing communications must state significant limitations and qualifications. Qualifications may clarify but must not contradict the claims that they qualify.
(Qualification) and
20.2
20.2
Employment marketing communications must relate to genuine vacancies and potential employees must not be asked to pay for information.
Living and working conditions must not be misrepresented. Quoted earnings must be precise; if one has to be made, a forecast must not be unrepresentative. If income is earned from a basic salary and commission, commission only or in some other way, that must be made clear.
(Employment), but did not find them in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
