Ad description
A website for Oak Furniture Solutions, a furniture retailer, seen in March 2016. It featured two products in the ‘Camden’ range.
Large text on a product page for a chest of drawers stated “Camden Painted Pine & Ash 2 over 4 chest of drawers”. Smaller text stated “Crafted from solid pine and ash”, “Sturdy frame constructed from pine and ash” and “Wood Type Ash Pine”.
Large text on a product page for a wardrobe stated “Camden Painted Pine & Ash Triple Wardrobe with Drawers”. Smaller text stated “Solid pine and ash frame” and “Wood Type Ash Pine”.
Issue
The complainant, who understood that the products were made up largely of MDF, challenged whether the claim “Camden Painted Pine & Ash” was misleading.
Response
Oak Furniture Solutions Ltd said that the items were not made up entirely of MDF and that the composition varied between the items. They provided a breakdown of the materials used in each component for the chest of drawers and wardrobe. These specified that the main frames of both items were made of pine with a solid ash top, with the door panels, and the back and drawer bases were made of MDF.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered that, based on the product names and descriptions on the advertiser’s website, consumers would expect both the wardrobe and chest of drawers to be made up of pine and ash wood, excluding the materials used for adhesives, trims and edges. Although both descriptions referred to a sturdy or solid frame constructed of pine and ash, we did not consider that, in the context of the product names, consumers would regard this as an indication that the rest of the items, aside from the frames, might be made from other materials.
We noted that the product pages only specified ash and pine as the materials used. However, we understood from the information provided by the advertiser that a significant amount of the chest of drawers and wardrobe was made from MDF. We acknowledged that the product instructions stated that the Camden furniture range was made of “solid pine and MDF panels, with ash tops” but this was not included on the website and would not have been clear to consumers.
We considered that the presence of significant amounts of MDF in the products contradicted the impression created by the product names. Given the repeated reference to pine and ash, this was material information that could influence a consumer’s decision as to whether or not to purchase the items. We therefore concluded that the product names and the omission of this information from the ads and the product descriptions were misleading.
The ads breached 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).
Action
The ads must not appear again in their current form. We told Oak Furniture Solutions Ltd to ensure that their product names and descriptions were accurate and that, if they referred to materials, that they clearly stated all the significant materials used.
