Ad description
A promotion on the Kids Pass website www.kidspass.co.uk, seen on 11 August, for Twycross Zoo. Text stated “30% off Adult & Child Tickets with Kids Pass”. Under the heading “OFFER DETAILS”, text stated “30% off Adult & Child Tickets with Kids Pass Offer available 7 days a week, subject to availability. Adult & child tickets available”, followed by a button labelled “Claim Offer – Start Trial For £1”.
Issue
The complainant, who, after starting the trial to claim the offer, was only able to get a 25% discount, challenged whether the claim “30% off Adult & Child Tickets with Kids Pass” was misleading.
Response
Digital Rewards Group Ltd t/a Kids Pass confirmed that the 30% discount stated in the ad was not available at the time the complainant registered for the offer. The saving was in fact 25%.
They accepted that this was their mistake and said that they did not intentionally mean to mislead consumers into registering for a discount that was not available.
They updated their website on a regular basis and, at the time the relevant page was last updated, the saving was 30%. Since then, the zoo had changed its pricing and the discount was 5% lower than advertised.
They said that they had removed reference to the 30% discount and replaced this with “up to 25% off”, which they said reflected the correct pricing. They were also reviewing all other pages on their website to ensure that they were not misleading. They also said that they were taking measures to prevent this from happening in the future.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered that consumers would understand the claim “30% off Adult & Child Tickets with Kids Pass” to mean that if they had a Kids Pass membership, they would be able to obtain a 30% discount when purchasing adult and child tickets for Twycross Zoo.
We understood that, at the time the ad was seen, consumers were only able to obtain a 25% discount. We welcomed Kids Pass’s assurance that they would amend the savings claim made in the ad. However, because the ad stated that consumers could save 30% when that was not the case, we concluded that the ad was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising) and 3.7 3.7 Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation. (Substantiation).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Digital Rewards Group Ltd t/a Kids Pass to ensure that their savings claims did not mislead.
