Ad description
A picture of a bouquet on www.prestigeflowers.co.uk featured 26 roses arranged with green foliage in a glass vase. Underneath the photograph, text stated "Passion £41.00. This product includes FREE 50g Finest Belgian Chocolates (Medium bouquet shown). Mixed Roses Bouquet". To the right of the photograph, three pictures of the same bouquet but enlarged to differing image sizes (small, medium and large) to represent the different bouquet sizes appeared with the text "standard", "medium (+£5.00)" and "large (+£10.00)".
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the photograph of the bouquet was misleading because he believed it did not accurately represent the product.
Response
Prestige Gifting Ltd (Prestige Flowers) said they believed it might have been the case that the complainant had bought a medium sized bouquet, as was pictured on the website, and that they were sent a standard size in error. Having looked at the photograph provided by the complainant, it represented a "Passion" bouquet of a standard size. They explained that the number of rose stems included in that particular bouquet was 16, 26 and 36 for standard, medium and large sizes respectively.
Prestige Flowers explained that for each size increase, customers paid an additional £5. Each bouquet had a specification of flower stems, species of flower, flower colour, bud diameter and foliage type which should be included in the bouquet. The composition of each bouquet was as advertised on their website and they confirmed each photograph on the website was of a medium-sized bouquet. They believed text "Medium bouquet shown" which appeared underneath the photograph made that clear to consumers.
Further to receiving the complaint, Prestige Flowers, had included the following statement on the home page of their website "All these bouquets are available in standard, medium and large, medium illustrated". They also included the word "from" before each price claim appearing on their home page. They believed those changes resolved the complaint.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA saw a copy of the complainant's order confirmation from Prestige Flowers which stated he paid £41 for the flowers and £5.80 for delivery. A standard bouquet had 16 roses and cost £41 which was the same number received by the complainant and price they had paid. However, Prestige Flowers confirmed the pictured bouquet on the website had 26 roses and was not a "standard" size, rather a "medium" which we understood cost £5 more i.e. £46.
The price claim "£41" was prominent and appeared immediately beneath the picture while the text "Medium bouquet shown" appeared in the product description tab below the picture. Notwithstanding that text, we considered consumers were likely to interpret the picture as an accurate representation of the bouquet they would receive when paying £41, the only price quoted in the ad. Consumers paying £41 received a smaller sized bouquet with fewer roses than the one shown. Because of that, we considered the picture was not an accurate representation of the advertised product (i.e. a bouquet priced at £41) and we therefore concluded it 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 3.11 3.11 Marketing communications must not mislead consumers by exaggerating the capability or performance of a product. (Exaggeration).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Prestige Gifting to ensure that all pictured bouquets were representative of the product available for the advertised price.
