Ad description
Claims on www.wealdenbakery.co.uk, for a wholesale bakery, featured text on the home page which stated "Wealden Bakery Country bakers at the heart of the city". The link clicked though to a page which stated "Country bakers at the heart of the city Wealden Bakery. Wealden Bakery - The Wholesale Bakery with a difference. Thanks for visiting! Wealden bakery is a wholesale bakery focused on providing a high-quality service and customer satisfaction whilst supplying you with great products at a competitive price - we will do everything we can to meet your expectations".
The "About Us" page of the website featured an image of a man baking products in a commercial oven, and an image of a person kneading dough.
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the ad misleadingly implied that the Wealden Bakery baked their own products, because they understood they were distributors who did not produce their own products.
Response
Wealden Bakery said they were a wholesale bakery who supplied only to retailers. They explained that they bought in bulk from a manufacturer and then distributed those products to retailers. They believed the website made that clear and did not imply that they manufactured their own products. They also pointed out that they worked with a number of baking houses to create bespoke products for their customers. They argued that a number of organisations who operated in the same manner as themselves were referred to as bakeries.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA acknowledged that Wealden Bakery had amended the pictures which showed products being baked and had removed the references to 'Country bakers at the heart of the city'. However, we noted the ad made repeated references to the 'Wealden Bakery' as a 'wholesale bakery'. Whilst we acknowledged Wealden Bakery's belief that a number of organisations who operated in the same manner as themselves were referred to as bakeries, we understood that a number of wholesale bakeries also baked and distributed their own products. In that context, we considered consumers were likely to understand the ad to mean that Wealden Bakery baked and distributed their own products. Because they did not, we concluded that the ad was misleading and breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
3.1
3.1
Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
and
3.3
3.3
Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.
Material information is information that the consumer needs to make informed decisions in relation to a product. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead the consumer depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the marketing communication is constrained by time or space, the measures that the marketer takes to make that information available to the consumer by other means.
(Misleading advertising).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told the Wealden Bakery to ensure claims were not likely to mislead in future.
