Ad description
A national press ad, for a betting tipster service, was headed "LONG-TERM PROFITS". Further text in the body of the ad stated "Many individuals and services can achieve a profit on a short-term basis, however it seems obvious that only long-term profits are the real measure of a successful service. For instance clients have achieved a profit in 38 of the last 50 months; that's 76% winning months over the period. We are well ahead in 2012 and remain in great form...".
Issue
The complainant, Lord David Lipsey, Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Betting and Gaming and member of the Starting Price Regulatory Commission, acting in a personal capacity, challenged whether the headline 'LONG-TERM PROFITS' was misleading, because it implied that the forecasts were very likely or certain to win or that the service was very likely or certain to turn a profit.
Response
Ian Bailey Racing (IBR) said they believed it was clear that the headline referred to past performance over a particular period, when taken in the context of the rest of the ad, and it was not intended to give the impression that future success was guaranteed. They said they had adequately proofed their bets and therefore felt they should be able to claim past success.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA accepted that it may not have been IBR's intention to imply that those using their service were very likely or certain to make a profit in the future, and we accepted that the body of the ad provided an example of the past performance of the service, which IBR believed had been adequately proofed. However, even if that was the case, we considered that the majority of consumers would view the headline as referring to the likely future performance of the service and that they would be likely to interpret the claim 'long-term profits' as an indication that they would be very likely to make a profit if they were to pay for membership of the service. Because we considered that the ad placed excessive emphasis on profits and winning and made inadequate reference to the possibility of tipping losers or of losing money, we concluded that the ad misleadingly and irresponsibly implied customers were very likely or certain to achieve a profit.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.3 1.3 Marketing communications must be prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society. (Social responsibility) and 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form.
