Heathrow Airport rapped by ASA for unsubstantiated claims in expansion plan ad
Heathrow Airport is in hot water with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after complaints arose it ran "unsubstantiated" claims in ads that presented arguments in favour of expanding the airport.
A London Tube ad headed 'Expand Heathrow and it's the economy that takes off', drew in one complaint, with the complainant questioning the claim 'Direct flights to long-haul destinations build twenty times more trade with them than indirect flights'.
Heathrow provided a number of economic reports to back up the claim and said that several American companies − such as Microsoft, Ford and Vauxhall − based their European headquarters within the UK because of elements such as a shared language and good connections.
Despite this the ASA said that due to the discrepancies between how the claim was likely to be understood and what the supporting evidence stated, as well as the lack of explanation for how the twenty times figure was calculated, it concluded that the claim was not adequately substantiated.
The ad must not appear again in its current form.