ASA rejects claim by Tesco that Asda ad was misleading
The Advertising Standards Authority has rejected a claim by Tesco that an Asda advertisement was misleading.
Asda ran a national press ad last July for its 10% price guarantee showing a woman with a child holding a receipt with large text stating “We’ve saved over £15 against Tesco”.
Tesco argued that the advert was misleading as it believed it implied that customers could regularly save £15 on their general shopping at Asda compared to at Tesco.
It said the claim “We’ve saved over £15 against Tesco”, was also misleading, because it did not make clear that Asda had compared its own promotional prices and multi-buy prices with Tesco non-promotional prices.
However the ASA rejected the complaint, saying the customer pictured with a receipt made it clear that the £15 claim was a customer testimonial, rather than a suggestion that customers could expect to regularly save that amount themselves.
In addition, the advertising watchdog said the products bought by the customer featured in the advert had been selected by the customer, not by Asda. It also concluded that as the savings resulted from a comparison that included promotional activity by both supermarkets and other competitors, the claim was not misleading.
