Final Monthly ASA Report Slams Sun Newspaper And Fcuk
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) publishes its last monthly report today. From next week weekly reports on the results of its complaints investigations will be available on its new look website.
The move is part of a series of initiatives at the ASA to improve efficiency and openness at the organisation. A redesigned website contains detailed information on advertising regulation and will for the first time allow ASA Council decisions to be released into the public domain on a weekly basis.
Today’s report includes complaints upheld against the Sun and the News of the World following poor administration of a scratchcard promotion run during summer last year. Guaranteeing various cash prizes up to £1m, the competition involved ringing a hotline to claim prizes on the day the winning scratchcard was published in the newspaper.
The ASA heard that the phone lines were constantly busy during the specified times and were on one occasion closed a quarter of an hour early, meaning that many customers were unable to claim their prizes. One customer who did manage to get through was refused a prize despite fulfilling all rules set out by the newspaper.
The newspaper group said it had sufficient staff manning its phone lines but was unable to supply evidence of the amount of operators available. It was, however, able to assure the regulatory body that its lines were open during the specified hours and this part of the complaint was not upheld.
The Daily Sport was also in trouble for exaggerating readership claims. An ad hoping to attract advertisers to its classified section said that it would be viewed by 1m readers, a figure which was disputed by the complainant. The ASA said that sales of one million a day was justified only for the highest day of sales and not for each day the paper was published.
An Evening Standard reader was upset by an ad headed “world’s biggest fcuk”. Announcing the opening of the world’s biggest French Connection store, the ad read, “Tomorrow see the arrival of the fcuk of your dreams. fcuk Oxford Street is a fcuk like no other…one humungous fcuk.”
ASA acknowledged that fcuk was the advertisers trademark and that most Evening Standard readers would be aware of this. However it said it had already warned the advertisers that “fcuk” should not be used in advertisements if it could be interpreted as “fuck”, and warned it not to repeat such an approach in the future.
Advertising Standards Authority: 020 7580 5555 www.asa.org.uk