Complain to the ASA!!!

MSE_Martin

I've just seen another rather annoying and misleading advert, so off I popped to the Advertising Standards Authority and filled in a complaint form at

How to make an ASA complaint

Now this isn't by any means the first time I've done it. However I think perhaps its time MoneySavers collectively started to report all misleading companies.

So this is what i suggest. Discuss your complaint here, and whether others think it justified then let's collectively go and make the complaint!

What did I complain about?

A TV advert from Egg.

It says "0% balance transfers for 9 months" and doesn't include any small print.

Yet there is a 2% balance transfer fee for doing this. So while the advert intimates no cost, the real cost is completely missed out. Totally wrong! I'll keep you up to date on the ASA's reaction

Martin

libra10

A couple of years ago I won a prize from The Sun newspaper. A couple of months passed and eventually I emailed, receiving no reply. Following several attempts at emailing with no response, I phoned and was promised the prize. It never came and eventually I contacted the ASA. The next evening both the prize promoter and someone from The Sun phoned, the prize arrived within a couple of days.

I would probably still be waiting for the prize without the intervention of the ASA, they were very helpful.

amarillo_2004

I was ranting about the EGG ad last night - boring friends & family. Feel vindicated now & am going to turn my rant into action.

Complained to the ASA about a year ago over the Pot Noodle 'slag' billboards which I was disgusted by. Complaint was upheld, got a nice letter from ASA. But by the time the complaint is decided on, it's too late in my opinion.

scotswarvet

But by the time the complaint is decided on, it's too late in my opinion.

That would not surprise me and is a very good point to note.

If the ASA are taking that long to make a decision the likes of EGG will have made their millions.

Best of luck Martin.

mini

The ASA offer yearly reviews over the most complained about advert, so the power of money savers could really be noticed.

I complained about a crisp advert once, it was meant to be funny for a man to be hit by a woman, but a woman being hit by a man is frowned upon, their reply was it's ok & amusing for a woman to hit a man but considered violent if a man hits a woman.

mini

MarkyMarkD

I agree with Martin that people should report ads to the ASA - I've reported them at least 30 times and had quite a few upheld.

But I also agree with the other posts that the ASA's process is FAR too slow. FCUK are the worst example of this - they use adverts absolutely knowing they'll get banned, but not giving a toss because, by the time they are banned, they've run their course in any case. And then they get some MORE free publicity from the ban!

In an internet era, a complaint process which gives the respondent a MONTH to reply to the wording of the draft complaint, and then even longer if they reject some of the wording (just to string it out) whilst, meanwhile, allowing the advert to continue running unchanged, is a bit of a joke IMHO.

Queenie

mini wrote:

The ASA offer yearly reviews over the most complained about advert, so the power of money savers could really be noticed.

I complained about a crisp advert once, it was meant to be funny for a man to be hit by a woman, but a woman being hit by a man is frowned upon, their reply was it's ok & amusing for a woman to hit a man but considered violent if a man hits a woman.

mini

Not sure that those who deal in the domestic violence field/charities would agree! Or the kids who get whacked around their heads by their mothers!!

longpockets_2

I just got stung by this last week. But it wasn't Egg.

I have a Virgin card with 0% on balance transfers and a different card with 0% on purchases. The purchases card was nearing it's limit and I had a very important (i.e. I couldn't put it off) purchase coming up. So I thought I was being smart by transferring some of the balance to the Virgin card thus avoiding any interest payments.

It was only when I was completing the online balance transfer that I found I'd be charged 2%. By then I couldn't back out as I wouldn't have enough balance on the purchases card to cover the incoming purchase.

Annoying but you live and learn.

svmitche

I saw one of the Egg ads a few nights ago (the one where the guy sells the diet formula) and it had small print on the screen clearly stating the 2% fee, up to a max of £50. It was pretty small though and was not on the screen for a great deal of time.

Could this have been added later?

tristar_3

http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/how_to_complain/complaints_form/Complaint+Summary.htm.
this is the link to ASA's online complaints form

BigKisses

mini wrote:

I complained about a crisp advert once, it was meant to be funny for a man to be hit by a woman, but a woman being hit by a man is frowned upon, their reply was it's ok & amusing for a woman to hit a man but considered violent if a man hits a woman.

mini

On the subject of violence does anyone else find the current Tesco ad featuring Naomi campbell to be in poor taste? The ad is based around the fact that Naomi is renowned for having temper tantrums but if you bear in mind that one of these tempter tantrums resulted in her assaulting her assistant(and pleading guilty to it in court) I'm not sure it's something that should be used for comic effect by Tesco in an attempt to sell clothes

Here's the a link to see the ad for anybody who hasn't seen it

http://www.visit4info.com/details.cfm?adid=22161

oops and this one

http://www.visit4info.com/details.cfm?adid=22160