Leisure

The advertisement was a promotional email from Vibes & Scribes. The title of the email was:

“Win our Wool of the Month Giveaway”

The email included the following wording:

“Wool of the Month

Part of the signature Cygnet range, Cygnet Aran is available in an array of beautiful shades, perfect for quick kid’s knits, ladies knitwear and men’s jumpers.”

The promotional email also featured other products.

The complainant considered the statement in the email advertising “Wool of the Month” was misleading as it was often used to describe products (such as the Cygnet Aran in the complained about advertising which is an acrylic yarn) that were not wool but synthetic yarn. The complainant said that yarn was the only acceptable name for synthetic yarn and that the term ‘wool’ should not be used to describe same.

The advertiser said that they have never specifically described acrylic yarn as being made from wool fibre. They said that the use of “wool” in their advertising for “Wool of the Month” was used in a ‘colloquial’ and ‘Irish-specific’ sense to mean any spun knitting fibre. It was not advertising that yarn was made from the natural fleece of sheep.

They elaborated that in their opinion ‘yarn’, as an umbrella term for spun knitting fibres, was not used in Ireland until recent years and that this was due to an American influence permeating the terminology of the ‘craft world’. They said that Irish people would still however use the term ‘wool’ as a catch-all term to generically describe all knitting and crocheting materials as wool was historically the primary fibre available despite the proliferation of other materials.

The advertisers pointed to other retailers that used the term wool as a catch-all term to describe yarn and wool.

FURTHER INFORMATION:
The Executive consulted the Merriam-Webster online dictionary:

Wool (Noun)
1: the soft wavy or curly usually thick undercoat of various hairy mammals and especially the sheep made up of a matrix of keratin fibers and covered with minute scales
2: a product of wool especially: a woven fabric or garment of such fabric

Definition accessed by the Executive on 17th September 2024 here:-
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wool

Complaint Upheld.

The Complaints Committee considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers’ response.

The Committee noted that the advertisement included several references to ‘wool of the month’ and that the product featured was not wool. The Committee noted the dictionary definition of “wool” The Committee considered that the use of the word “wool” as a descriptor for a product that was not wool could mislead consumers. In the circumstances, the Committee considered that the advertising was in breach of Sections 4.1; 4.4; 4.9; and 4.10 of the Code.

ACTION REQUIRED:
The advertisement must not reappear in its current form.