Dyson vacuum cleaner ad banned over ‘exaggerated’ claims
A television advert promoting a Dyson vacuum cleaner has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for making ‘misleading’ and ‘exaggerated’ claims.
The Gallery Network commercial depicted a woman packing an extension tube into the device before placing it in a cupboard, sans tube and hose. A voiceover then intonated ‘So there you have it, the smallest, quietest Dyson Ball vacuum.’
One complainant asserted that this misleadingly implied that both appendages could be folded into the vacuum, something which is not possible, a sentiment with which the ASA agreed.
In its response Dyson stated that opened by showing the device being built from its component parts, with no hose or wand connected, adding that it believed subsequent images made clear that there was no room for either attachment to be housed inside the machine.
In its adjudication the ASA wrote: “We considered that consumers would understand from these final scenes that the wand and hose collapsed down further than shown and that it was possible for them to be collapsed down into the body of the machine. Because this was not the case, we concluded that the ad was misleading.”