The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Wonga

ASA ban ‘misleading’ and ‘confusing’ Wonga ad

Author

By John Glenday, Reporter

April 9, 2014 | 2 min read

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has moved to outlaw a contentious payday loan advert from Wonga following concern that it was sowing confusion amongst the public as to the interest rate charges it levies on customers.

Hackles were raised by the piece which depicted two puppets debating the cost of a Wonga short-term loan and implying that a representative APR of 5853 per cent was ‘irrelevant’.

In the advert the characters said: "Some people think they will pay thousands of per cent of interest. They won't of course - that's just the way annual rates are calculated. Say you borrowed £50 for 18 days, it would cost you £33.49."

This drew 31 complaints from viewers but Wonga insisted its on-screen information satisfied industry rules.

Disagreeing with those views the ASA expressed concern “…that viewers would be left without a clear understanding of how the information in the on-screen text could be applied to a Wonga loan, given the ad's assertion that the representative APR was not indicative of the cost of the loan.

"We considered that, though it attempted to clarify the costs associated with a Wonga loan, the ad created confusion as to the rates that would apply. On that basis, we concluded that the ad was misleading."

The ad must not be aired again in its current form.

Wonga

More from Wonga

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +