A complaint about a company who confused people across Hampshire and Isle of Wight into thinking they were donating to an Air Ambulance charity, has been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority.
In June 2010, Island Pulse highlighted news from the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance charity, that a company called ‘Air Ambulance Service’ were misleading generous donors across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
A company calling itself ‘Air Ambulance Service’ had been putting leaflets through letter boxes across the county, showing a photo of a yellow Air Ambulance, similar to that as flown by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance (HIOWAA) Charity (as pictured).
The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance received many complaints, about these leaflets. They do not do leaflet drops and all textile recycling is done through Bag It Up www.bagitup.org.uk, who have over 300 yellow recycling banks around the county.
HIOWAA are a recognised charity and felt people were being led to believe they were donating unwanted textiles to them when in fact the ‘Air Ambulance Service (Trading Co) Ltd’ a commercial company, was in no way connected to HIOWAA. www.hiow-airambulance.org.uk
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) were contacted and have upheld a complaint (published 19th January 2011) against Air Ambulance Service (Trading Co) Ltd, of Bicester, Oxon.
Leaflets delivered house-to-house are categorised as ‘advertisements’. So the ASA can investigate misleading aspects of them. These include any potentially misleading references to charities or companies/businesses – such as bogus registration numbers, names or addresses.
The ASA adjudication in the above complaint in brief:
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The complainant challenged whether the circular misleadingly implied that ‘Air Ambulance Service’ were raising money on behalf of official air ambulance services.
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The Advertising Standards Authority challenged whether the claim “… £2 from text service goes directly to Air Ambulance Service” misleadingly implied that official air ambulance services would benefit directly from the revenue from text services.
The ASA Ajudication Council concluded:
“Because we had seen no evidence showing that any money was donated to official air ambulance services, either from the clothing collection or from text messages, we concluded that the circular was misleading.”
On both points (1&2), the circular breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 2.3 (Recognition of Marketing Communications), 3.1 and 3.3 (Misleading advertising).
Charity Bags Website provides a comprehensive overview of the initial misleading advertising by Air Ambulance Service (Trading Co) Ltd click here…
In conclusion the ASA state: Circular (as previously displayed, click here ) must not be used again in its current form.
Click on bold text to access website links.
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