Emap Under Fire From Natmags Over Teen Covermounts
Emap’s teen title Bliss has been rapped by Advertising Standards Authority following a complaint by rival National Magazine Company over the value of its covermounts and authenticity of the celebrities shown to be endorsing them.
The complaint centred around three issues of Bliss, each offering various free gifts for readers valued at a certain price. Natmags questioned whether Emap’s claimed value of the free gifts could be proven as they believed the free items were not available for sale.
Natmags also complained that photographs of celebrities carrying a free covermounted bag from Bliss had been manipulated and were not genuine. The publisher claimed that Emap was attempting to misleadingly suggest that the bags were endorsed by the celebrities, thereby exploiting the magazine’s young readers.
The ASA upheld both complaints, stating that while Emap had been able to prove the worth of some free gifts, it had been unable to prove the values quoted for all of the promotional items. Consequently the Authority considered Emap’s promotion misleading.
The advertising watchdog instructed Emap to ensure that the values quoted for promotional items were based on actual or recommended selling prices and not to base values of free gifts that were not available to buy on similar retail products.
Emap admitted doctoring photographs to show celebrities carrying a bag featured as a covermounted gift, but claimed that it had done so to ‘add an element of humour to the promotion’ and had intended the manipulation to be obvious to readers.
The publisher also stated that it would refrain from manipulating images in the same way again, a pledge that the ASA welcomed as it felt that young readers would not realise the photographs were manipulated and would infer that the free bags were used and endorsed by the pictured celebrities.
Bliss was recently given a facelift, offering readers a more grown-up format with content more tightly focussed on its young readership’s core interests. Emap claimed that the magazine’s revamp introduced more glamour to the title’s existing fashion and beauty pages, as well as increasing the number of pages dedicated to gossip, real-life stories and boys (see Bliss Gets A Facelift To Compete In Tricky Teen Market).
ASA: 020 7580 5555 www.asa.org.uk Emap: 01733 568 900 www.emap.co.uk
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