Ad description
A paid-for Facebook ad for The Essence Vault, a fragrance retailer, seen on 26 October 2024. The ad included a video which began by showing two perfume bottles. The first was a generic, full-size perfume bottle accompanied by the text “OVER £100”. The second, a full-size bottle of The Essence Vault product “Inspired By Lost Cherry - 444”, was accompanied by the text “ONLY £4.95”. A voice-over and corresponding text in the video stated, “STOP letting designer perfume brands rob you! Meet The Essence Vault luxury fragrances inspired by designer brands but without the crazy price tag [...] Never overpay for luxury scents again.”
Text in the caption stated, “Looking for long lasting perfumes but tired of breaking the bank account? Today you’re in luck! Switch to The Essence Vault for designer inspired scents, that last for longer and don’t break your bank account”.
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the ad misleadingly implied that the full-size product was available to purchase for £4.95.Response
The Essence Vault stated that the ad was a variation of a previous ad which had made clear that the price was “from” £4.95. They said they had removed the ad and taken steps to ensure the problem would not reoccur.Assessment
Upheld
The ad showed a hand holding a full-size bottle of The Essence Vault perfume, above which was the claim “ONLY £4.95”. The ASA considered that consumers would interpret the price claim to relate to the product shown in the ad, which we understood was a 100 ml bottle.
However, we understood that was not the case and that The Essence Vault offered three different sizes of perfume: a 5 ml sample; a 30 ml bottle; and a 100 ml bottle. We understood that the price £4.95 referred to the price of a 5 ml sample of the product, and that the price of the 100 ml bottle shown in the ad was £26.95. Given that the price claim did not relate to the product featured in the ad, we therefore considered the price claim was misleading.
We acknowledged that The Essence Vault had removed the ad and had intended to advertise the product as being priced “from £4.95”. We considered that consumers were likely to understand from the ad that, what was being promoted was a full-size version of the product. Therefore, in the absence of prominent information to make clear to consumers that what was being promoted was a sample of a product rather than a full-size product, using a “from” price which related to the sample would still have been likely to mislead.
Given the above, we concluded that the pricing claim in the ad was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 and 3.3 (Misleading advertising), and 3.17 (Prices).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told The Essence Vault to ensure that future pricing claims did not mislead and that their advertising clearly stated whether the price related to the sample of the product.
