Nightclub

A post on the advertisers’ Facebook page referred to the following:
“Molly’s Late Bar
Thursday at 14:29
Christmas Jumper Party Tonight… Free Santa Hats & FREE ENTRY…”

Four complaints were received in relation to the advertising.
All four complainants said that while “Free Entry” had been advertised, they had been charged a €5 admission fee to gain entry to the nightclub.

The advertisers said that while they had “Free entry” for the first 100 patrons on the night, from 11pm onwards they had charged an entry fee of €5 to cover late night exemptions to 2.30am. They said that there had been no Facebook post advertising this event, what had been posted was footage from the event at 2.29pm on the night in question i.e. 29th November.

FURTHER INFORMATION
The Executive forwarded a Facebook post to the advertisers which they had received from one complainant. This post had indicated a time of 14:29 in the afternoon on the date in question and had not related to the footage taken by the advertisers during the event at 2.29am in the morning. There had been no qualification attached to the ‘Free Entry” element of the post.
The Executive asked the advertisers if they wished to provide any further comments in the matter. They also asked the advertisers for copies of any other advertising which they may have had for the event. They advertisers did not respond further to the Executive.

The Complaints Committee considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers’ response. The Committee expressed concern that the advertisers had not referenced the fact that the ‘free entry’ was applicable to the first 100 patrons only. They considered that this was a major condition that should have been referenced in the main body of the post.
In the absence of the ‘free entry’ claim being qualified in the advertisement, the Committee concluded that the advertising had the potential to mislead and was in breach of Sections 4.1, 4.4, and 5.16 of the Code.
The Committee upheld the complaint.

ACTION REQUIRED
The advertising should not be used in the same format again.