Unregulated investments are any product marketed as an investment but that fall outside of traditional financial regulation, such as wine and physical gold. The ASA will regulate their marketing communications, considering them under the financial rules in Section 14, as well as the wider CAP Code.
- If the ad is for an investment, explicitly or by implication, rule 14.4 states ads for investments must make clear that the value of the investment can go down as well as up, see rulings here and here.
- If you use examples of past performance in your ads rule 14.5 states the examples must be representative and must make clear they do not necessarily give a guide to the future. An ad for gold investment that stated “Gold has averaged 11.5% per annum for the last 20 years” was seen to breach 14.5 because no such warning about past performance was in the ad or the landing page it linked to, see ruling here.
- Objective claims for financial returns should be accurate and capable of being substantiated (see rules 3.1 and 3.7). An ad for a wine investment claimed wine had historically returned 13.6 percent annually in the past 15 years. While the advertiser had claimed to have taken the figure from a reputable global marketplace for tracking wines prices, they had not provided any evidence to support the figure, see ruling here.
- Objective claims generally should be substantiated and truthful (see rules 3.1 and 3.7). A social media ad for a wine investment claimed to have “proven tips for maximising returns on your fine wine collection”. The advertiser also provided figures from a global marketplace for wine prices showing that 1,000 specific wines had risen overall seven percent in five years to support the claim. The ASA noted however that within that five-year period wine had gone down as well as up. Because the ad stated their tips were “proven” and would assist “maximising returns” we understood the claim would be interpreted as stating that their recommended investments would always substantially increase. However because the evidence showed returns were variable, we said the claim had not been substantiated, see ruling here.
Staying invested in these top tips, will help ensure your ads stay compliant and generate great future returns. For free, bespoke advice on your non-broadcast advertising you can contact the Copy Advice team.
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