ASA Adjudication on The Hand of Help Ltd

Ad

A circular stated "Recycle your unwanted clothing to raise funds for Birth Care Association to help disabled children. Registered in England No 05618823."

Issue

Clothesaid challenged whether the:

1. ad was misleading because it did not make clear that The Hand of Help supported organisations in Lithuania, rather than in the UK, and

2. Birth Care Association was genuine and that The Hand of Help raised funds for it.

CAP Code

Response

1. The Hand of Help Ltd t/a thehandofhelp.co.uk (The Hand of Help) said they did not state in the ad that the funds were donated to Lithuanian children because they did not want to make any distinction in terms of nationality. They maintained that many charities did not specifically state the nationality of the people they helped. The Hand of Help asserted that their funds were used to help children from various other nationalities living in Lithuania, such as, Russians, Ukrainians and Poles.

2. The Hand of Help pointed out that the website of the Birth Care Association specifically named them as a donor. They said their own website featured full contact details of the charity and its work. The Hand of Help said they held financial records proving the donation of half their profits to the Birth Care Association. They also maintained that they were supervised by their local Trading Standards Department and the Inland Revenue.

Assessment

1. Upheld

The ASA noted the "Birth Care Association" was not the full title of the organisation receiving The Hand of Help's donations. We understood it was properly called the Kaunas Association of Care About [sic] the Disabled from Childhood. We considered  that, in the absence of any claims to the contrary, consumers were likely to expect any donations would be made to UK based charities and that the name "Birth Care Asssociation" was likely to reinforce that impression. We considered that the beneficiary of any donations was likely to influence some peoples decision to donate and, because we considered that the circular did not give a clear indication that The Hand of Help donated money only to Lithuanian organisations, we concluded that it was likely to mislead.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 and 7.2 (Truthfulness).

2. Not upheld

We understood that The Hand of Help donated a proportion of their commercial profit to the "Kaunas Disable Youth Centre" and the "Kaunas Association of Care About [sic] the Disabled from Childhood". Although we noted the ad referred to the "Birth Care Association", we understood that that was an alternative name of the latter organisation. We noted from their websites that both charities cited The Hand of Help as being among their sponsors. We also noted The Hand of Help had provided copies of financial records showing the donations they made to Kaunas Association of Care About [sic] the Disabled from Childhood. Consequently, we considered that they had substantiated that the Birth Care Association was genuine and that The Hand of Help raised funds for it. We concluded that the ad was unlikely to mislead.

On this point, we investigated the ad under CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation) and 7.1 (Truthfulness) but did not find it in breach.

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form.

On point 1, we told The Hand of Help to ensure that they made clear their donations were being made to Lithuanian charities.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)