A promotion for Heinz, which featured text that said “Free Dayz out with every pack” has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for misleading consumers.
The ad omitted to mention the “significant conditions” of the promotion, including that it was only available to consumers over 18 and that consumers could only make two claims per day each.
Heinz argued that it contained instructions on how to enter the promotion, and that it directed consumers via a QR code to a website that contained all terms and conditions. However, the ASA found that the advert was not limited enough “by time and space” to justify the omission.
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The ASA said: “We told Heinz to ensure that their future marketing communications included all significant contributions where the omission of such conditions was likely to mislead”.
In a similar move from the ASA last year, theme park Alton Towers had its “rainy day guarantee” promotions banned, after a complainant said she felt misled because it had rained and she had been unable to get her money back.
A Eurostar flash sale promotion was also banned earlier this month due to the “very small” number of seats available within the offer.
Speaking about the Heinz promotion, CEO and founder of promotional compliance agency PromoVeritas Jeremy Stern told Marketing Beat: “Limited on pack space was the issue.”
“Creatively, Heinz wanted to use their pack to achieve impact and they left off elements that were deemed by the ASA to be ‘significant conditions’ such as applicable dates, restrictions age limits etc all of which may influence a decision to purchase and participate or not.”
He added that to carry out successful promotions without misleading brands should feature “key conditions upfront and in every piece of marketing”.
He continued: What might appear insignificant on a piece of packaging can have huge ramifications if not understood by a consumer.”
