Ad description
Text on www.poundworld.net stated "poundworld everything £1".
Issue
A complainant, who had seen ‘manager special’ items in-store for £3 and £8.99, challenged whether the claim "everything £1" was misleading.
Response
Poundworld Retail Ltd saw the ‘manager specials’ as a service in addition to their £1 products. They said the manager specials were ‘occasional’ offers which usually ran during the Christmas selling period and at random and infrequent intervals for the remainder of the year. They said there tended to be no more than two products on offer at a time as manager specials.
Following discussion with their home Trading Standards authority, they had identified strategies for marketing manager specials to ensure that the items were distinguishable in store from the £1 items and separate from them. They supplied copies of a draft procedure that was to be issued to stores which detailed how manager specials should and should not be presented in store, and a notice to be displayed on a wall at each store's entrance advising customers of the possible presence of manager special items.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered the claim suggested that every item in the store would be priced at £1. We noted the precautions Poundworld issued internally with a view to making sure the price of items priced at more than £1 should be clear to consumers. Nevertheless, we considered that a significant draw of the claim would be that consumers would expect to pay no more than £1 for any of the items in the store. Because that was not the case, we concluded that the claim was misleading.
The claim breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising) and 3.17 3.17 Price statements must not mislead by omission, undue emphasis or distortion. They must relate to the product featured in the marketing communication. (Prices).
Action
The claim must not appear again in its present form. We told Poundworld Retail Ltd not to claim that all products were priced at £1 unless that was the case.
