Hull estate agency Beercock Wiles and Wick has amended the wording of a regional press advertisement following a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority.
The complaint concerned a press ad stating “Family Run, 7 Days a Week” followed by the geographic address and contact details for the 10 High Street, Barton upon Humber branch.
The complainant challenged whether the “7 days a week” claim was misleading because the Barton upon Humber branch was not open on Sundays.
The ASA approached the agency and received an assurance that the ad would be changed to not seven day opening for that branch.
"On that basis we considered the matter was resolved and closed the case informally" says an ASA spokesman.
Every week the ASA publishes a list of cases where the authority takes a formal decision to accept or reject a complaint. In extreme circumstances this can lead to an advertisement effectively being banned.
However, informal resolution of cases usually involves a discussion between the ASA and the company about the nature of the complaint, and a voluntary agreement by the company to amend wording or accept that it would not continue to use the disputed wording.
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This seems to be happening every week now. Is it because ASA are taking more notice of agents' adverts or more agents reporting each other?
Yes, it's all getting a little bit tedious. It seems complaints are being made left, right and centre for absolutely everything!
Stop complaining ;)
It is all getting very silly. I mean, in the case above, fair enough - they clearly weren't running a 7 day a week operation. But it does seem a bit petty, and a case of agents reporting each other far too much, when these stories continually come to light.
You don't often see the really big agencies being challenged on the wording in their adverts. You don't see certain online agents being challenged on their claim that the services they offer are truly 24/7. Seems more like petty politics between local agents. Fair enough, adverts should be accurate not misleading, but there is a sense of complaining for complaining's sake about all this.
Perhaps they should use the trick all other advertisers seem to use, which is the old 'up to' routine; Up to 100% dandruff free! Up to 80% discounts! Up to 150% smaller brain, guaranteed, if you believe the advert.
Open up to 7 days a week!
Where to I send my invoice (which includes an up to 0% discount)?
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