ASA bans Dreams TV ads
The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld complaints made against a campaign for furniture retailer Dreams, created by Robson Brown.
The two TV adverts were featured in the campaign, the first stated “Britain’s biggest ever bed sale ends Monday … but hurry Britain’s biggest ever bed sale with over 50% off thousands of beds ends Monday”. The ad included on-screen text which read "Ends Monday 8pm", having seen the campaign on the 25, 26 and 28 February.
The second advert featured the same productions and stated “Specially extended, it’s the last few days of Britain’s biggest ever bed sale … but hurry, there’s just a few days left to save over 50% on thousands of beds.” On-screen text stated "offer ends 15/03/10".
Two viewers complained that the campaign was misleading and that it exaggerated the urgency to purchase good on offer as it stated that the sale would end on Monday 1 March, although they saw the advert on 4 and 5 March.
The client responded by explaining that sale was due to end of 1 March, and that the final transmission date on TV was 28 February but the success of the promotion, along with the offer of ‘some good value airtime’ led to the extension of the promotion.
Dreams also explained that due to the changing circumstance of the marketplace with severe weather across the country in January and February, and snowfall in Scotland and Yorkshire in February, they believed that customers may wish to purchase a bed and may not have been able to do so.
The decision to extend the sale by 14 days was also thought to be a small extension in comparison to the sale’s 77 days period.
Dreams also sent a letter from an adviser who stated that they did not believe that a sale extension was an automatic breach of Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading legislation, and that the extensions were legitimate under the circumstances.