TalkSPORT And Express Rapped Over Misleading Advertising
The Advertising Standards Authority has reprimanded both Kelvin MacKenzie’s talkSPORT radio station and the Daily Express newspaper over misleading advertising.
TalkSPORT was given a dressing down by the ASA after it ran a press advertisement claiming it was the UK’s largest commercial radio station with more than 6.6 million listeners.
The figures given came from GfK Media’s new electronic wristwatch-based survey, while industry-sanctioned RAJAR data reports a weekly reach of nearly two million, not high enough to rank as the UK’s ‘biggest commercial radio station’.
The watchdog concluded that the ad was misleading, but welcomed an offer by the Wireless Group owned station to correct the advertisement, stating the source of its figures in future campaigns.
The Daily Express was also in hot water after running a direct mail promotion including the statement: “The latest official figures show that the Express titles have risen to record levels”. The ASA deemed the claim to be false as, although the ABC figures being referred to were higher than the previous year, circulation had been higher still in previous years’ audits.
The watchdog ruled that the statement was unsubstantiated and asked the newspaper not to run the claim in future advertisements. Owners of the Daily Express are understood to have complied with the ruling.
The ruling by the ASA follows a similar rebuke for Sport Newspapers, publishers of the Sunday and Daily Sport, earlier this month. The company currently faces the legal action from the Office of Fair Trading after a referral by the ASA when the company failed to comply with its ruling over a front-page flash deemed to have misled consumers (see Pricing Blunder Lands Daily Sport In Hot Water).
ASA: 020 7580 5555 www.asa.org.uk Northern & Shell: 020 7308 5090 TalkSPORT: 020 7959 7800 www.talksport.co.uk
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