Ad description
Two paid-for TikTok ads for the StaySafe All-in-One fire extinguisher:
a. The first ad, seen on 27 August 2023, featured a man and woman in bed discussing the product. The man stated, “It’s big enough to deal with any fire […] It’s easily used and tackles fire in seconds […] It’s the StaySafe All-in-One fire extinguisher.”
b. The second ad, seen on 25 August 2023, featured a woman using the fire extinguisher to extinguish a fire on an electric multi-socket extension lead. She stated, “That is unreal. How’s it work so fast? This is the StaySafe All-in-One fire extinguisher. Buy a few of these now.”
Issue
Two complainants, who understood that no fire extinguisher was suitable for all sizes and types of fires and that the product was not suitable for electrical fires, challenged whether the ads were misleading.
Response
LifeSafe Technologies Ltd believed the claims “It’s big enough to deal with any fire” and “It’s easily used and tackles fire in seconds” in ad (a) were not misleading because the product had been tested and proven to extinguish fires caused by electrical, wood, cooking oils, textiles, petrol/diesel, paper/card, motor oil and bioethanol products. They said the StaySafe All-in-One was specially formulated to be effective in extinguishing electrical fires up to 1000 V, as was shown in ad (b), and that it extinguished lithium-ion battery fires.
LifeSafe Technologies said they had worked with the British Standards Institute (BSI) to ensure the product was fully tested and approved. That included the product passing the relevant specification tests to ensure the claims made in both ads (a) and (b) were accurate. They said the product was produced to Finite Element Analysis (FEA) standards, was BSI 5597 test compliant and that the fluid used in the extinguisher was BSI tested, which ensured it worked effectively on A, B and F Class fires as well as lithium and di-electric fires. They also said the product was EN3 tested, which was a standard for portable fire extinguishers set by the European Committee for Standardisation.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered the claim that the product was “All-in-One” was likely to be interpreted by consumers to mean the product was effective at putting out all types of fires that were likely to occur in a domestic setting. Furthermore, we considered that consumers were likely to interpret the claims in ad (a) “big enough to deal with any fire” and “easily used and tackles fires in seconds”, as shown within the context of a home, to mean that it was extremely effective in extinguishing any type or size of fire which could realistically occur in a domestic setting. We considered consumers would also understand from the video of a woman extinguishing an electrical fire in ad (b) that the product was effective in tackling fires caused by electrical appliances. We therefore assessed whether the product could extinguish all types and sizes of fires typically seen in domestic settings, including electrical fires.
We understood that fire safety organisations recognised six classifications of fire: A, B, C, D, Electrical fires and Class F fires. Different types of flammable materials were listed for each of those classifications, in particular combustible materials (A), flammable liquids (B), flammable gases (C), flammable metals (D), electrical equipment (E) and cooking oils/fats (F). We therefore expected to see evidence to show that the StaySafe All-in-One product could efficiently extinguish fires caused by each of those materials, including specific certifications for each classification of fire.
While we acknowledged LifeSafe Technologies’ comments regarding the testing of their product and the certifications that had been issued to it, they had not provided any evidence to support their position. We also noted that they said the product could only work safely on electrical fires up to 1000 V, which therefore meant it could not deal with any fire, as claimed in ad (a).
Because we considered the ads gave the impression that the product was effective at putting out all types and sizes of domestic fires and was an “All-in-One” home fire extinguisher, and we had not seen evidence to show that was the case, we concluded that the ads were misleading.
The ads breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1, 3.3 (Misleading advertising), 3.7 (Substantiation) and 3.11 (Exaggeration).
Action
The ads must not appear again in the form complained of. We told LifeSafe Technologies Ltd to ensure that future ads did not state or imply their fire extinguishers were suitable for all sizes and types of domestic fires, including electrical fires, unless they held adequate substantiation for those claims.
