'Misleading' LoveFilm ad rapped by watchdog
A LoveFilm ad promoting a two-week free trial offer has been banned by the ASA after a viewer complained that he was charged for watching a film online.
The TV ad carried a voiceover saying: "Want an easy way to rent movies? ... You can have Blu-Rays and DVDs by post, you can watch movies online, and now you can even have movies streamed straight to your internet enabled TV. Did you know we rent games too? ... You can even try it for free."
LoveFilm said the ad was intended to promote its DVD rental service and not the films it streams online which were not part of the offer. The ASA ruled this was not made clear enough.
The watchdog said: "We considered that viewers were likely to infer that, in the absence of qualification to make clear any restrictions that applied, full use of LoveFilm's services, including watching movies online, were included in the two-week free trial.
"We understood, however, that some content, such as Pay Per View Watch Online content which tended to consist of newer releases, was excluded and a charge was applied. We considered that the exclusion was a significant condition that should have been made clear in the ad. Because it was not, we concluded that the ad was misleading."