Consumers who rely on images on promotional material to find what they see in the shop should be able to rely on this promise, but in the case of popular jeweller Lovisa, some of its advertised products could not be found in store.

The Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB), in one of its latest findings, rebuked the jewellery chain for not delivering on its promise dispite of Lovisa not being a member of the ARB.

This followed a complaint by a consumer, who could not find the items displayed in pictures in its promotional material, which displayed sparkling images of jewellery in its stores.

The complainant submitted that the main picture is of jewellery, but the items in that picture are never for sale. In fact, they don’t even stock those items, the complaint read.The ARB said the advertiser (Lovisa) was afforded an opportunity to respond to the complaint but failed to do so.

The directorate noted that the advertiser is not a member of the ARB and it therefore presumed that the advertiser does not submit to the jurisdiction of the ARB. The directorate explained that although Lovisa is not a member and does not need to adhere to its findings, the ARB may consider and issue a ruling to its members.

The complainant said she requested information about one of the products pictured in the email header, but was told by an agent that they cannot locate the product without a stock number. While the directorate accepted that the advertiser has a large offering of products, both in-store and online, consumers should not be asked to deliver a stock number.

It remarked that the purpose of marketing emails is to encourage consumers to purchase the items being advertised and it should not be misleading. The directorate was able to find some (but not all) of the jewellery pictured in the promotional picture.

However, it said that all items shown in a marketing mailer should be available for purchase by the consumer. The directorate accepted that there is a possibility that the remaining pictured items are all, indeed, Lovisa products.

However, it said, the Lovisa stock is large, and it is almost impossible to navigate to find a specific item, let alone confirm that it is still for sale or on a particular special. This is information that the advertiser could easily have furnished, but chose not to.

Given this, the directorate has no basis to accept that all the advertised products were available, and was certainly unable to find all the pictured products, despite several attempts to do so. The directorate concluded that the use of marketing images with no supporting sales links and the apparent unavailability of many of the pictured items is likely to mislead the customer into believing that the items are available when they are not.

Therefore, the directorate said that these images constitute a visual presentation which, by implication, is likely to mislead the consumer, which is prohibited by the advertising code. It instructed its members not to accept the advertising from the advertiser in its current form.

zelda.venter@inl.co.za

Source link