Advertisment
The advertising referenced the geographical locations in which the posters appeared with the claim “1st for buying, selling and renting in …” with the advertisers’ logo and web address (daft.ie) in the bottom right hand corner.
For example, a poster advertisement in Dublin 2 stated “1st for buying, selling & renting in Dublin 2.”
The locations involved included Bray, Dublin 2, Dun Laoghaire, Fairview, Finglas, Greystones, Blanchardstown, Dalkey, Templeogue, Kildare, Newbridge, Phibsboro, Portmarnock, Swords and Tallaght.
Complaint
MyHome.ie in objecting to the advertising said that they did not consider that Daft could make a claim to be ‘’1st for buying, selling and renting’’ in these areas
They pointed out that the ASAI Code stated that “A claim that any product is superior to others should only be made where there is clear evidence to support the claim. Wording which implies superior or superlative status such as “number one”, “leading”, “largest” and the like should be capable of substantiation with market share data or similar proof.”
They said that they were unaware of any data that substantiated the claim and therefore believed the advertising to be misleading to the public. (They noted that Daft had not placed any source of data reference on the posters).
Response
The advertisers contended that their claim to be “1st for buying, selling and renting” in the respective areas was substantiated by having the most number of properties available in those respective areas.
They said that the substantiating data was collated by referring to the publicly available data on both Daft.ie & MyHome.ie websites on December 11th 2013. The number of properties available within all sections of both sites (sales, rental, commercial, holiday homes etc.) demonstrated, they said, that Daft.ie was “1st for buying, selling and renting” in the given areas.
They forwarded screenshots taken on the day of the number of properties available on both sites, within all sections.
The advertisers subsequently forwarded a summary of the data at the request of the ASAI;
This data summary was, however, dated 28th November 2013.
Conclusion
Complaint Upheld.
The Complaints Committee considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers’ response.
The Complaints Committee noted that the screenshots forwarded by Daft had covered the following
For Daft.ie :
• Rentals (holiday homes, residential to rent, Residential To Share);
• Commercial (Both sales and lettings)
• Residential Property for Sale (Both New and Second hand homes)
For MyHome.ie:
• Rentals (holiday homes, residential to rent, Residential To Share);
• Commercial (Sales only)
• Residential Property for Sale (Both New and Second hand homes)
While they noted that the advertisers had also provided a summary table of information, this was dated 28th November and was therefore not relevant substantiation in this case.
In relation to the screenshots provided, they considered that as the advertisers had failed to provide screenshots for MyHome.ie’s Commercial Lettings they had not substantiated the advertised claims.
In addition the Committee noted that while Daft.ie were 1st on the combined total of Rentals they were not 1st in all areas for Property Sales.
The Committee considered that where a composite claim was made (1st for buying, selling and renting in …), then the advertisers must demonstrate that they were 1st in each segment in the relevant area, that is, 1st for buying, 1st for selling and 1st for rentals.
As this was not the case in Bray, Dalkey, Dublin 2, Dun Laoghaire, Dundrum, Fiarview, Greystones, Phibsboro, Portmarnock, Ranelagh, Stillorgan, Tallaght and Templeogue, the Committee upheld the complaint against the advertising that referred to these areas.
In addition, the Committee considered that where a claim to be the market leader was made, unless the claim was based on substantiation over a reasonable period of time, it should be clear from the advertising that it was based on a snapshot on a particular date.
Action Required:
The advertising should not run again in the same format.
