ASA Adjudication on London Marketing Services Ltd

Ad

An internet ad, for job vacancies, was headlined “ … Marketing Trainee Role: WE WILL TRAIN”. Text below stated “Salary - Salary Negotiable Sector - Marketing & PR - Marketing Assistant Job Type - Permanent”.

Further text included “London Marketing Services is one of the most progressive Marketing and Advertising firms based in London, now expanding with 12 new openings waiting to be filled immediately! We hold an amazing portfolio of clients in professional Cosmetics, Communications, Finance and various Entertainment industries … We will be offering training in the following fields: Promotional Marketing and Advertising; Sales; Customer Service; Team Management; Public Speaking. We are looking for enthusiastic, goal-oriented individuals, who want to succeed in a competitive high-energy environment. We are offering: Promotions and advancement based on merit, not sales or seniority; Extensive training; Travel Opportunities; A fun, positive work environment; Rapid growth and advancement … We cover all areas of direct marketing, as a company we work with all aspects of the marketing field. Pay is entirely performance based, we believe we are developing potential managers with great leadership skills; therefore the more you put in the more you’ll get out of this role! Each campaign varies, the specifics are always discussed during the interview process, but candidates should be prepared to work hard to achieve their targets! A number of interviews will be necessary to make final decisions on the position, the 2nd stage interview will entail a full day with us, you won’t be asked to do anything other than observe! When you return to the office, we will look to make final decisions from there. Good Luck!”.

Issue

The complainant challenged whether the ad was misleading, because he believed the vacancies were for door-to-door sales people and were based only on commission.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

London Marketing Services Ltd (LMS) said the ad clearly stated that they covered all areas of direct marketing and worked with all aspects of the marketing field, as well as that pay was entirely performance based. They said they were not trying to hide the fact they were a direct marketing company and they had trained all employees to ensure they were aware of their pledge not to mislead anyone; they believed the reference to direct marketing made clear that they went directly to consumers or clients. LMS said they intended having a tighter control on recruitment, to ensure pay and direct marketing were included in all conversations. However, they believed it was the applicants responsibility to make sure they were completely happy with the role they were applying for.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted the ad included text that stated "We cover all areas of direct marketing, as a company we work with all aspects of the marketing field. Pay is entirely performance based". We also noted, however, the ad included text such as " ... Marketing Trainee Role", " ... Salary Negotiable Sector - Marketing & PR - Marketing Assistant ... ", "London Marketing Services is one of the most progressive Marketing and Advertising firms based in London ... We hold an amazing portfolio of clients" and "Each campaign varies", which we considered was likely to be interpreted as suggesting the role was one in marketing and/or PR and had an annual salary, rather than being in direct marketing and based only on commission. We considered most people would not understand from the claim "direct marketing" that the job would involve door-to-door sales.

We considered the overall impression of the ad meant the text "We cover all areas of direct marketing, as a company we work with all aspects of the marketing field. Pay is entirely performance based" was not sufficient to make clear that the role involved, we understood, door-to-door sales, and that the salary was based on commission only. We considered that information should have been made clear in the ad itself to avoid misleading potential applicants. We concluded that the ad was misleading.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 52.2 (Employment and business opportunities).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told LMS to ensure future ads made clear the nature of the role and that the salary was based on commission only. We advised that they contact the CAP Copy Advice team when preparing future marketing material.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)