Background
Summary of Council decision:
Three issues were investigated, all of which were Not upheld.
Ad description
A website for the Athletics World Cup www.athleticsworldcup.org, seen on 11 May 2018, included on a page headed “Event News” text which stated “Record 250,000 ticket requests received ahead of Athletics World Cup ticket ballot … With just three days remaining for those interested in attending to register ahead of a ticket ballot, the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the Athletics World Cup have today revealed that they have received over 250,000 ticket requests for this year’s inaugural event … Registration for the Athletics World Cup are now open … with the closure in the days prior to April 4 to be followed by a ticketing ballot”.
Issue
John Bicourt of the Association of British Athletics Clubs challenged whether the claims:
1.“250,000 ticket requests received”;
2.“Athletics World Cup … inaugural event”; and
3.“Registration for the Athletics World Cup are now open … to be followed by a ticketing ballot”
were misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
1, 2 & 3. UK Athletics Ltd said that 83,533 people had registered an interest in purchasing tickets for the 2018 Athletics World Cup. As part of the sign up process each person was asked the number of tickets they required, which totalled 263,303. They provided us with the data collected which showed the number of individual ticket requests and the total number of tickets requested.
They said that they were permitted by the global governing body for athletics, the IAAF, to call the event the Athletics World Cup and that this was the first instance in which the competition had been run. They provided a copy of a permit from the IAAF which granted permission for the event to go ahead. Further, they explained that it was the first time that the events featured individual competing countries that mirrored ‘World Cup’ formats in other sports. They said that the participating countries were qualified through their standing in the IAAF points table from previous IAAF World Championships.
They said that they had run a ticket ballot for those who applied through the Athletics World Cup website. They provided a timeline of how tickets were sold which included a ticket ballot which became available on 4 April and that all remaining unsold tickets were made available to the general public on 1 May.
Assessment
1. Not upheld
The ASA considered that consumers would interpret the claim “250,000 ticket requests received” to mean that UK Athletics Ltd had received requests for 250,000 tickets from individuals or groups requesting either one or more tickets.
We considered that the evidence provided by UK Athletics Ltd showed that they had received 250,000 ticket requests during the sign up process. We therefore concluded that the claim was not misleading.
On this point, we investigated the ad under CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising) and 3.7 3.7 Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation. (Substantiation).
2. Not upheld
We considered that consumers would interpret the claim “Athletics World Cup … inaugural event” to mean that this was the first instance that the specific event had happened.
We were satisfied that UK Athletics had permission from the IAAF to call the competition “Athletics World Cup” and that it was the first time that the event had been held. We therefore concluded that the claim was not misleading.
On this point, we investigated the ad under CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising) and 3.7 3.7 Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation. (Substantiation).
3. Not upheld
We considered that consumers would interpret the claim “Registration for the Athletics World Cup are now open … to be followed by a ticketing ballot” to mean that tickets for the event had been available through a ballot.
We were satisfied that UK Athletics had run a ballot as part of the ticket purchasing process. We noted that some tickets did later become available through a general sale, as there was no guarantee that the tickets would have sold out during the ballot. We therefore concluded that the claim was not misleading.
On this point, we investigated the ad under CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising) and 3.7 3.7 Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation. (Substantiation).
Action
No further action required.
