Advertisment
The advertisement was seen as an Instagram post on the advertisers’ own profile. It featured a promotional image for Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour at the Aviva Stadium Dublin’ concert with the advertisers’ logo superimposed on the bottom as well as text stating:
“WIN 2 TICKETS – Like, Tag Friends, Share to your Story & Follow @ozoneathlone”.
This image was accompanied by further text stating:
“🚨WIN 2 TICKETS TO TAYLOR SWIFT ERAS TOUR🚨
👍LIKE this post
🥰TAG friends
😎SHARE/REPOST this post to your story
😃FOLLOW @ozoneathlone
Taylor Swift brings the Eras tour to Europe next Summer and Athlones [sic] #1 venue are giving you the chance to be there!
Ts & Cs apply.
Must be over 18 to enter.
Please note we will ONLY contact winner from this page.”
Complaint
The complainant considered the advertising to be misleading as they considered that the giveaway was run with the purpose of gaining followers on false pretences. They said that no end date was given by which a competitor had to enter, and that no response was received when they asked the advertisers about this.
Response
The respondent explained that they were an external promoter and social media manager who worked on behalf of the advertisers. They said that their team put this giveaway together the previous summer and that they often do giveaways of this type.
In relation to no end date being given, the advertisers said that the giveaway was for tickets to an event that was due to take place during the upcoming summer and that due to the high level of entries, they had decided to leave it open ended. They explained that they did not realise this was an issue and therefore retroactively added an end date of Friday, 1st of March 2024 to the Instagram post.
In relation to not responding to customer questions, the advertisers said that given the popularity of the artist, they received a huge number of messages from around the world with people pleading for them to be selected as the winners and that as the giveaway grew, so too did the number of spam messages received. They said that for future giveaways, they would set up an email address with the purpose of specifically addressing customer queries.
The advertisers denied that the giveaway was used to gain followers under false pretences. They explained that they used an Instagram comment picker and giveaways tool called WASK.co to pick winners and that it was completely fair and honest. They pointed to a giveaway they conducted the previous year and provided evidence that a winner was selected, and the tickets forwarded to them.
The advertisers said that on this particular post, they added a ‘T&Cs Apply Note’ and that one of the terms and conditions was that if tickets were not available to the tour dates in Dublin, they would provide an alternative with flights to another show. They said that this ended up being the case and they therefore purchased tour tickets for the next available venue which was Anfield Stadium in Liverpool. They forwarded confirmation of the ticket purchase with their response.
The advertisers said that they would be willing to change any aspect of the post or put out a notice on their social media if required by the ASA.
Conclusion
Complaint Upheld.
The Complaints Committee considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers’ response. The Committee acknowledged that the competition did run. They also noted that the advertisement had been amended to include a closing date for the competition and that the tickets had been purchased for the giveaway.
The Complaints Committee considered that as the social media post advertising the competition did not clearly state the closing date of the competition, this had the potential to mislead consumers. They therefore considered the advertising to be in breach of the Code at sections 4.01, 4.04, 5.30(a) and 5.32.
Action Required:
As the advertisement had been amended, no further action was required. The Complaints Committee reminded advertisers of the need to clearly set out closing dates in each advertisement. They also reminded advertisers to ensure that terms and conditions were available to potential participants before entry to competitions and promotions.
