Advertisment
The television advertisement featured various offers. The relevant segment showed a selection of wine and champagne on screen with accompanying text reading “20% off all wine and champagne”. This text occupied circa 50% of the width of the screen. As this offer appeared on screen a voiceover stated, “raise a glass to 20% off selected wine and champagne”.
At the bottom of the screen, for circa 5 seconds, a super provided details of the promotion’s terms and conditions. It read “PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY. All offers are subject to availability. Customer quotas may apply, see in-store for details. Alcohol is excluded from the €10 off €30 welcome grocery voucher and the €10 off €50 voucher promotion. 20% off all wine, sparkling wine and champagne. This offer applies to 750ml. This offer excludes fractionals, fortified wines, giftpacks and multipacks. Terms and conditions apply. See dunnesstores.com/promotions for details”.
Complaint
Two complaints were received regarding the advertising. The issues raised are as follows:
Issue 1:
The complainants considered that the television advertisement was misleading and contradictory as on-screen text stated “20% off all wine and champagne” while the voiceover stated that the offer applied to “selected wine and champagne”.
Issue 2:
One of the complainants also considered that the terms and conditions displayed on the television advertisement were too small and appeared for too short a time period to be able to read the offer’s terms in full.
Response
Issue 1:
The advertisers acknowledged receipt of the ASAI’s correspondence however questioned the accuracy of the details provided by the complainant in relation to the television advertising. The advertisers stated that the copy of the advertisement they held from their agency did not have any discrepancy between the on-screen text and the voiceover, stating that both referred to “20% off all wines and champagne”.
They said that they would provide a copy of the commercial at a later date, referencing issues they had experienced with a file transfer. No response was received from the advertisers on the copy of the commercial forwarded by the ASAI (that had been received by the ASAI from the channel on which it was broadcast). This version contained the discrepancy between the voice over and onscreen text.
The advertisers stated that the campaign messaging “20% off all wines and champagne”. was intended to alert customers to the fact that the offer extended to the entire range of wine and champagne stocked by Dunnes Stores and not only to specific brands or types.
Issue 2:
In relation to the terms and conditions, the advertisers stated that they did not consider their duration on screen to be too short. They stated that the television advertisement contained different promotions, and as each of them appeared on screen their relative footers did too. They further stated that as each offer required its own footer to be displayed, each remained on screen for the same duration as their corresponding visual / audio.
Conclusion
The Complaints Committee considered the detail of the complaints and the advertisers’ response. They noted that the ASAI Executive had sourced the advertisement from the channel that had broadcast it.
Issue 1 – Upheld.
The Complaints Committee noted that while the on-screen text, which was very prominent, referred to “all” wines and champagnes, the voice-over stated “selected”.
They also noted that the offer was not available across all packaging formats. They considered that the prominent use of the word ‘all’ when there where exclusions had the potential to be misleading, notwithstanding that the voice over had referred to ‘selected’. In the circumstances, they considered that the advertising was therefore in breach of Code Sections 4.1, 4.5, 4.6. 4.9 and 4.10.
Issue 2 – Upheld.
The Complaints Committee considered that the footer text was of sufficient size, however, they did not consider that the time on-screen itself was sufficient to be easily legible. In light of this, the Committee concluded that the advertisement was in breach of Code sections 4.01, 4.05 and 4.06 of the Code.
Action Required:
The advertising should not reappear in its current form. Wording such as ‘all’ should not be used if there are any exclusions or exceptions.
