21 May 2008


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Asda rapped over Morrisons price check ads

Asda

Morrisons

Supermarket giant Asda has been rapped by the Advertising Standards Authority over adverts that misleadingly claimed its prices were cheaper than those of rival Morrisons.

Asda store

Morrisons complained about the adverts, which compared a 44- and 48-item weekly shop across the two stores.

One advert claimed: “Your weekly shop costs less at Asda. Morrisons £76.65. Asda £69.33.”

Morrisons complained that the ads were misleading and did not represent a fair comparison because most of the savings were based on promotional prices, including Asda “Rollbacks”.

It objected to one advert because it did not take into account a buy-one-get-one-free (bogof) offer being run at Morrisons at the time.

Morrisons also said the products compared might not represent a typical weekly shop.

The advertising watchdog upheld most of Morrisons' complaints.

Because the ads did not make it clear that some of the comparisons involved products on promotion or rollbacks, the ASA concluded “that the savings claims in the ads could mislead”.

It also noted that Asda had been warned in a previous case that it should make clear when promotional prices were involved and warned: “Repeated breaches of the Advertising Code could result in further sanctions.”

Asda was told to make sure that evidence to back up future price comparison ads was made available on request.

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