Ad description
A content discovery network ad seen on 21 November 2022 on a national newspaper website at the bottom of a news article stated “Thinking Of Remodeling Your Bathroom? See The Latest Trends” accompanied with a picture featuring a man carrying out work in a bathroom. Beneath the text there were the terms “Remodeling" "Search Ads" "Sponsored”.
The link led to a website, https://gb[...].life, which consisted of a list of links that stated “Bathroom Remodel Walk In Shower”, “Small Bathroom Design Ideas”, “Small Bathroom Renovation Ideas”, “Bathroom Ideas”, “Walk in Bathroom Shower” and “Bathroom Remodeling Designs”. The links ultimately linked through to a number of different bathroom retailer websites or further landing pages that contained Yahoo search links.
Issue
The ASA challenged whether the claim “Thinking Of Remodeling Your Bathroom? See The Latest Trends” was misleading regarding the nature of the content that the ad linked through to and that the ad falsely implied the marketer was acting for purposes outside its business.
Response
Red Gobo Inc confirmed that the ad had been taken down. They said that they took any complaints from the ASA seriously and were committed to maintaining high standards in all of their advertising campaigns.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered consumers would understand from the text “Thinking Of Remodeling Your Bathroom? See The Latest Trends” that the ad linked directly to information or an editorial article regarding the latest trends in bathroom remodelling. We considered that “See The Latest Trends” implied that consumers would be immediately provided with that information or article once they clicked on the ad. We acknowledged that the ad included the label “Search Ads” in small print beneath the claim. However, we did not consider that the meaning of that label was likely to be widely understood by consumers, and therefore did not counteract the overall impression of the ad as genuinely editorial content.
When clicked on the ad took consumers to a landing page which featured a brief list of links under various subheadings, including “Small Bathroom Design Ideas”, “Small Bathroom Renovation Ideas”, “Bathroom Ideas” and “Bathroom Remodeling Designs”. The page did not contain any informal or an article on bathroom remodelling. The subheadings linked to further paid-for ads that ultimately led to websites for bathroom retailers or further landing pages that contained Yahoo search links.
We understood that the landing page (https://gb[...].life) for the ad was a ‘parked domain’ website set up by Red Gobo Inc. We understood that domain parking was the registration of an Internet domain name without that domain being associated with services such as e-mail or a website. Domain parking could be done for various reasons, including reserving the domain name for future development or to protect the domain name from use by others. Domain parking could also be monetised by operating a single-page website which hosted ads, as was the case here. Ads which linked through to the parked domain website would then generate income from the host of the parked domain through the impressions it collected.
The ad therefore misleadingly implied that consumers would find information or an editorial article on bathroom remodelling ideas when they clicked on it, when that was not the case. We considered that the nature of the content the ad linked through to, particularly that it linked only to ads and search results, was likely to have a significant impact on whether or not consumers chose to engage with it.
We therefore considered that the nature of the content the ad linked through to should have been made clear in the ad, and because it did not do so we concluded the ad was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 2.3 (Recognition of marketing communications) and 3.1 (Misleading advertising).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained about. We told Red Gobo Inc to ensure that their ads did not mislead consumers as to the nature of the content they would receive if they engaged with them, for example by using phrases such as “See the latest trends” if the ad did not link through to information or an article on trends. Ads for parked domain sites should make clear if the only content consumers would be served with by clicking on the ad would be more ads or links to search results.
