An advert for Asda’s 100-day quality guarantee on George clothing has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for presenting standard consumer rights as a unique benefit of shopping at the supermarket.
The “no quibble” guarantee on all George clothing was launched in March, promising a full refund if customers weren’t satisfied with the quality regardless of how many times the garment had been worn or washed.
A viewer complained because they believed that under the Sale of Goods Act consumers had extra time to return items that were not of an acceptable quality.
Asda argued its guarantee went beyond consumer protection legislation because it also offered a ‘cooling off’ period, where consumers could return clothes because of style, fit or colour, or if they simply changed their mind.
But the ASA found this was not made clear in the original adverts.
“The George 100-day guarantee, as presented in the ad, did not offer any more consumer protection [from a seller] than that already available under statutory legislation,” the watchdog ruled.
“We considered that consumers were likely to expect even low price clothes to last 100 days without the fabric quality deteriorating.”
The ASA also said the advert was “likely to mislead” shoppers by giving the impression that consumers only had 100 days to return faulty products when this was not the case.
“We'll be putting new ads for George out soon,” said an Asda spokeswoman.
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