Ad description
An ad for London City Airport, played on 7 June 2016 on the online stream of a London radio station stated, "Business or pleasure, time is on your side when you fly from London City Airport ... Fly with British Airways or Flybe from Edinburgh, or from Glasgow with British Airways, to the only airport actually located in the city of London. Get closer to the heart of London. From landing to the City or the West End in under 40 minutes. London City Airport. Fast, punctual and actually in London ...".
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the claims relating to the location of London City Airport were misleading.
Response
London City Airport Ltd said the reference in the ad to “the city of London” was intended to refer to inner London, as opposed to the “square mile” City of London (which listeners would know to be a very small and highly developed area where it would be virtually impossible for an airport to exist) or to Greater London, and they believed that was how it would be understood by listeners. The claim therefore excluded those airports within Greater London and the Home Counties which also served London. They pointed out that Heathrow Airport’s postcode (TW6) was not considered to be within the inner London postal area whereas their postcode (E16) was within the London postal area. They said London City Airport was the only airport with an inner London postcode.
Assessment
Not upheld
The ASA noted that the ad referred to London City Airport as “the only airport actually located in the city of London” and “actually in London”. However, the primary message of the ad was the time that could be saved by flying from or to London City Airport. We acknowledged that the most time efficient way to travel would be highly dependent on an individual’s starting or arrival location within London, and the transport links available to them to access different airports. However, we considered consumers would understand from the ad that it may be advantageous for them to fly from or to London City Airport, due to its central London location.
While we understood that no airports were in the central London local authority district of the City of London, and that London City Airport was not the only airport within Greater London (Heathrow being the other), we noted that it was the most central airport servicing London, and the only one that might reasonably be described as being within ’inner’ London. For that reason, we concluded that the ad was unlikely to mislead.
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), but did not find it in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
