Boots has been censured by the advertising watchdog for promising free No7 face lotion in stores without making sure it could meet demand.
A front-page ad in The Mail on Sunday in March directed readers to a voucher inside the paper to be redeemed for a free tube of lotion from “any Boots store today”.
A consumer complained to the Advertising Standards Authority after being unable to claim the offer at a store that had run out.
Boots failed to satisfy the authority it had made a reasonable estimate of the likely response to the promotion, or taken reasonable steps to avoid disappointing participants.
The health & beauty retailer estimated demand based on a previous promotion over six days and should have anticipated a more concentrated spike during the one-day offer, according to the ASA. Boots also used normal sales rates to help decide how much stock to allocate to individual stores, and should have been ready for higher demand when offering a product that usually costs £22.95 for free.
It also had no established system of recording instances of consumers being unable to claim because stock had run out in previous promotions, and therefore lacked reliable data for forecasting individual store demand.
The ASA said it was not enough that Boots staff could direct customers to the nearest store with stock, because “consumers should not have been expected to visit multiple stores in an attempt to redeem a free item before the offer expired”.
The phrases in the ad “subject to availability” and “while stocks last” did not “relieve Boots of their obligation to do everything reasonable to avoid disappointing participants by not having sufficient stock in individual stores”.
“We therefore concluded that the promotion had not been administered fairly and was likely to have caused participants unnecessary disappointment,” said the ASA.
The decision means the ad is banned from appearing again in the same form. Boots has also been instructed to ensure future promotions are administered fairly and do not cause unnecessary disappointment.
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