Ad description
A paid-for Facebook ad for Pulsio Compression, a muscle compression product, seen on 2 October 2024. The ad included an image of an individual using the product with superimposed text that stated, “BLACK FRIDAY SALE NOW LIVE”. Crossed out text stated “£599”, alongside further text which stated “£299 SAVE £300”. Text in the caption stated, “ONLY £299 THIS BLACK FRIDAY. SAVE £300. Leading Compression Power Without The Price Tag”.
Issue
The complainant, who understood that the product had never been sold at the higher price, challenged whether the reference price and associated savings claims were misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
Pulsio Ltd said they had removed the ad and had amended the promotional offer for their future advertising.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered that consumers would understand from the struck-out price of £599 that the promotional price represented a genuine reduction against the price at which the product was usually sold. We considered that consumers would also understand from the claims “SAVE £300” and “ONLY £299 THIS BLACK FRIDAY” that they would be able to achieve a genuine saving of £300 against the usual selling price of the product. We considered that impression was reinforced by the reference to Black Friday, and consumers were likely to interpret that to mean the promotional price would only be available for a short period of time, before reverting to being sold at the higher price once more.
We did not receive any pricing history for the product from Pulsio, and therefore, we could not determine whether the referenced higher price in the ad was the usual selling price of the product. However, we understood that different reference and promotional prices had been advertised for the same product over a six-month period. On 22 May 2024, the product was advertised with a reference price of £799 and a promotional price of £399, on 11 September 2024 the product was advertised as having a 50% discount with a promotional price of £299.99, and in October 2024 the product was advertised as having a reference price of £599 with a promotional price of £299 as part of a Black Friday sale. We considered that the reference price of the compression product fluctuated throughout that period; for example, the reference price decreased by £200 between May 2024 and September 2024. Furthermore, we considered that the product appeared to have been discounted throughout the six-month period. Moreover, we understood that there was only a 99 pence reduction between the Black Friday sale price as seen in the ad, and the previous promotional price seen in September 2024. Given that the reference price changed over a short period of time, that the product had been discounted several times within that period, and we had not been supplied with any pricing history, we considered that Pulsio had not demonstrated that £599 was the usual selling price of the product at the time of sale.
Because we had not seen evidence that the savings claims represented a genuine saving against the usual selling price of the product, we concluded that the savings claims in the ad were misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 3.7 (Substantiation), and 3.17 (Prices).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Pulsio Ltd to ensure that future savings claims did not mislead and that they substantiated any savings claims against the usual selling price of the product.
