Gambling companies Hillside (UK Sports) LP t/a Bet365 (“Bet365“), Coral Interactive (Gibraltar) Ltd (“Coral“) and Petfre (Gibraltar) Ltd (“Totesport”) were recently challenged by the UK advertising regulator, Advertising Standards Authority on using images of Jordan Spieth, US Open champion, on their Twitter feeds to promote betting. Under the UK non-broadcast advertising industry code (the CAP … Continue Reading
By Huw Morris and Charlotte P. Barnett on Posted in Regulatory - UK
A UK website offering reviews of accounting software that was operated by TheAccountancyPartnership.com Ltd t/a Pandle (“Pandle”) was recently challenged by Crunch Accounting Ltd (“Crunch”) on purported misleading advertising and unfair comparisons with identifiable competitors. Crunch complained to the UK advertising regulator, the Advertising Standards Authority (the “ASA”) (see: www.asa.org.uk). Crunch contested that www.accountingreviews.co.uk was … Continue Reading
On May 1, 2015, the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) released a set of amended Sales Promotional Rules contained in Section 8 of the CAP Code. This follows a public consultation aimed at amending a number of rules to bring them up to date with the current consumer protection landscape. For a list of key … Continue Reading
The ASA has upheld a complaint concerning a Christmas card which was offered for sale through the Amazon market place by the seller named smellyourmum.com. The front of the card contained wording incorporating a strong expletive which, although partly obscured using an asterisk, the ASA considered was likely to cause serious and widespread offence in … Continue Reading
The wait is finally over… Hot on the heels of yesterday’s launch of product placement onto UK television, today marks another dawn of a new age in UK advertising. As of today, Tuesday 1st March 2011, the regulatory remit of the ASA is extended to cover online non-paid for space and pages under the control … Continue Reading
115 million viewers. $3 million for 30 seconds of airtime. $210 million total advertising spend. Forget the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers slugging it out for the Vince Lombardi trophy, the real game was being played in the Super Bowl’s commercial breaks. Super Bowl XLV, like its predecessors, produced some very well received … Continue Reading
A Virgin Holidays poster advertising their “Travel Guru Services” was recently found by the ASA to be in breach of the CAP Code in relation to alcohol used in advertising. The ad depicts four rockstars in a jacuzzi full of champagne, with various bottles and glasses surrounding them and a female Virgin Holidays employee pouring … Continue Reading
Advertisers have been given the green light to continue to use the name of products they give away as prizes in promotions, without needing the permission of the brand/product owner, following a recent controversial adjudication by the ASA. The ASA disagreed and found in favour of Bodyform in all respects. Clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness),14.7 (Testimonials and … Continue Reading
In the same week that the Pope visited the UK, the ASA banned an ad it deemed could be offensive to some Roman Catholics. The ad, for Antonio Federici ice-cream, which ran in Grazia and The Lady magazines earlier this year, featured an obviously pregnant nun eating Antonio Federici ice-cream alongside the words “Immaculately conceived”. The strap … Continue Reading
A double page comparative ad which Asda ran in January 2010 was found to be ambiguous and misleading by the ASA in a recent adjudication since it breached clauses 7.1 and 7.2 (Truthfulness), 18.1 and 18.3 (Comparisons with identified competitors and or their products) and 19.1 (Other Comparisons) of the CAP Code. The ad featured the statement that Asda … Continue Reading
