Movie Mags’ Poster Promos Misleading

The Advertising Standards Agency has released its October 1997 report of objections to advertisements. The following complaints were all upheld.

Neon and Empire both carried offers for free posters on the outside of the sealed cellophane packing which covered the magazines. The Neon envelope claimed ‘Free! Four huge movie posters’ and Empire said ‘Four Free Blockbuster Posters’ each showing a card with the four pictures printed on it. However, in both cases, the giveaway was two double-sided posters rather than four. Emap Metro’s poster giveaway was objected to on the grounds that it gave a misleading representation of the number of posters inside.

…Publishers of Manchester United magazine, Zone Ltd., complained that an advertisement for Four Four Two magazine which claimed that Four Four Two is “the biggest selling football magazine for grown-ups”, was untrue. Haymarket, publishers of Four Four Two drew this statement from 1996 ABC figures for the ‘Sports: Football – Adult’ category; Manchester United is classified by ABC as ‘Sports: Football – Club Specific’ but sells more copies. The ASA believed that the audience would not know these category-distinctions and that the ad was therefore misleading.

…News Group Newspapers Ltd. received a double-complaint for its newspaper promotions. One complainant objected to the News Of The World ‘s ‘Free gold bracelet for every reader’ offer. In fact the offer was restricted to one bracelet per household. The ASA believed that ‘every reader’ was misleading. Another complaint was leveled at the Sun by The Mirror Group and a member of the public. The front page of the paper claimed ‘SPICE BONANZA – Free signed mags. Meet the girls. New pictures.’ Inside the paper the details said the feature would be in the next day’s paper. The complainants objected to the implication that the promotion started on the day of the headline.

…An Ashurst Direct Marketing direct response advertisement received an objection to its offensive content. The ad, for a direct mail business, featured a cartoon of a motorcyclist gesticulating and shouting ‘FANCY A BIT BABY!!!’ to a young women who was running away from him. The advert went on to state ‘Direct male? If you need someone to know the difference between a leg-up and a leg-over, then you should be speaking to us. We know what a hand-job really means!’ The ASA upheld the objection by adding the ad could cause widespread offence; Ashurst claimed the ad was produced late and went unchecked.

Advertising Standards Authority: 0171 580 5555