Financial ads referred to the ASA in the past few years have risen year on year and so getting ads for financial products right has never been more important.
Know who you are dealing with.
Non-broadcast ads for products regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will generally fall under the FCA’s remit. Exceptions would be matters of harm and offence, promotions and general green claims, which would be for the ASA. Broadcast ads for all financial products, regulated by the FCA or not, would fall under the ASA’s remit. See more here.
Don’t take advantage of consumers’ inexperience.
For financial products and services not regulated by the FCA, rule 14.1 states that ads should be presented in such a way that they can be easily understood by the audience they are being presented to. Marketers should not exploit the inexperience or trust of consumers.
An ad for whisky investment, see here, was deemed irresponsible for implying the investment was straight forward, accessible, safe and a way to fund early retirement, when whisky investment was relatively expensive and profits were not guaranteed.
Make clear what you are offering.
Financial ads should present clearly the contract being offered to consumers (rule 14.2). They should also set out any relevant limitation, expense, penalty and the terms of withdrawal. If the ad is a general one or short on time or space, free material must be accessible to consumers before a contract is entered into.
A poster for a buy now pay later (BNPL) credit services provider was judged to have not made it sufficiently clear that the ad promoted a product that involved a type of debt, see here. While the poster included a website address for consumers to find out more, information was not sufficiently prominent to say the product was a form of credit.
Set out the basis of any interest, forecast or projection.
An ad for cryptocurrency, see here, included the claim earn up to “8.5% p.a.” However, it did not make clear that the rate referred to a return on cryptocurrency or that the rate depended on the type of cryptocurrency, the amount transferred, or the period held with the company. It therefore breached rule 14.3.
Make it apparent that investments are variable.
If your ad promotes an investment it must include information that investments can go down as well as up, rule 14.4 and see rulings here and here.
Past experience or performance is not a guide to the future.
Using examples of past experience or performance in ads is acceptable. However ads that do should also include information that states the examples do not necessarily mean that similar results or outcomes will always be the same (rule 14.5), see ruling here. In addition, examples of past experience or performance that are used must be representative.
If you stick to these principles, then your financial ads should be quids in, but if you need further advice visit our AdviceOnline library, and if you need bespoke advice on your non-broadcast ads, our Copy Advice team are happy to help.
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