PC World's 'misleading' 3D TV ad banned
An online ad for PC World promoting savings of £1,500 could be made on a 3D TV has been banned by the advertising regulator.
DSG Retail, which owns the PC World brand, received a slap on the wrists for being unable to prove that consumers could make the savings on the TV priced at £1,999.
Small text on the promotion claimed that the TV was priced at £3,499 from 10 September to 1 October 2014. However, a single complainant argued that the out-of-date pricing was “no longer relevant” and as a result garnered a misleading price on the product.
The ASA said: “We were unable to determine whether the price on which that savings claim was based, £3,499, was the usual selling price of the product, because we had not seen evidence to demonstrate that that was the case, such as the pricing history of the product.
“We noted that the ad included smaller, less prominent text which indicated that the product had been available at the higher price for a period of three weeks, more than six months previously. Given that, we considered it was unlikely that the higher price was the price at which the product was usually sold at the time the ad appeared, or, therefore, that the savings claim represented a genuine saving against the usual selling price.”
DSG Retail was instructed to ensure future promotionsl “did not mislead about the benefit available”.