The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a Cadbury website promotion for “misleading” the public and “omitting significant” terms and conditions.
The “Match and Win Big!” promotion, in association with the Premier League, the Scottish Premiership and the English Football League, asked customers to buy a promotional Cadbury product, enter its unique barcode into the prize website and then make score predictions for live football matches.
Winning participants were promised VIP match tickets, TV package bundles and “1000s” of club shop vouchers. Club crests of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur football clubs, accompanied the website’s imagery.
Compers News Magazine contacted the ASA to complain about the fact that postage costs for club merch purchases where not mentioned in the promotion. Members of the public also told the advertising authority that the Cadbury ad did not clarify the fact that the club shop voucher prize was only available at six of the 19 participating clubs.
READ MORE: Cadbury promotion breached advertising practice code, ASA reveals
Snack company and Cadbury owner, Mondelez, responded to the complaints by claiming that the promotion clearly stated in the terms and conditions that the “winner of the vouchers are responsible to pay their own postage and packaging on any purchases”. The brand also pointed out that some football clubs offered free postage if the order reached a certain threshold.
With regards to complaints made about the club shop voucher prize only being available for six football clubs, Mondelez responded by stating that Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool were the only clubs who had the capabilities of processing e-vouchers.
When asked why clubs that were not included in the promotion were featured in the website, the chocolate brand replied with claims that they were relevant to include because some of the prizes were hospitality and match day tickets.
“They said that imagery on the depiction of the e-vouchers on the website also only depicted the crests of the clubs that were participating in the e-voucher aspect of the promotion,” the ASA said.
However, the self-regulatory authority ultimately ruled that both aspects of the promotion mislead customers and violated CAP code.
“Because the promotional website did not clearly state that purchases using e-voucher prizes could be subject to postage costs, and because we considered that to be information which was likely to influence a consumer’s decision to participate in the promotion, we concluded that the ad was misleading.”
The ASA also considered that the ad omitted material information that the e-vouchers were only available for six teams and concluded that this aspect of the promotion was “misleading”.
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