17 Aug 2005


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ASA Rules Asda Must Drop Low Price Claim

Tesco's complaint about Asda's advertising tag has been upheld

Tesco is claiming a victory after the Advertising Standards Authority upheld its complaint that Asda's recent spate of advertising, claiming it is 'officially the lowest priced supermarket' should not be allowed.

The UK's leading grocery multiple objected to three national press ads and a tv commercial for Asda's supermarket chain.

The headline of one advertisement stated: "Asda wins every year ... (you win every day)". Featuring a basket containing eight groceries. A banner was displayed across them that stated "officially Britain's lowest priced supermarket. Source: Independent Industry Survey by The Grocer Magazine". Text below the banner stated "Yet again, Asda has been voted Britain's Lowest Priced Supermarket - for the 7th year running".

Tesco objected that the claims "officially Britain's lowest priced supermarket" and "officially the lowest priced supermarket for the seventh year running" were misleading, because they were based on a limited and unrepresentative survey that analysed only 33 items and another survey had suggested that Tesco's were cheaper. It also said that the use of "officially" misleadingly implied a Government department or industry body had carried out the survey.

In return Asda said it had won The Grocer's annual cheapest-basket award seven times, every year that the survey had been run; calculating that during its seven winning years there had been over 88,700 price checks.

The ASA ruled that the Grocer survey was too limited a price comparison to substantiate Asda's claim to be "Officially the lowest priced supermarket": it considered that 33 items were not enough to substantiate a general pricing claim; was concerned that, because the list of items in basket of goods was known, it was vulnerable to 'price chasing' by retailers; and considered that the omission of low-cost supermarkets from the survey prevented its results being valid substantiation for the claim.

The Authority told Asda not to repeat the claim: "Officially Britain's Lowest Priced Supermarket" with "you win every day".

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