Website Claims And The Asa

[Dukesy 0]

Well this has been a long time in coming, and IMO is well overdue. But from March 1st, the ASA will now be targeting and dealing with complaints over misleading claims on business websites.

 

This is likely to spell the end of statements such as 'We are the best', 'The best little agency in......', 'We are the most competively priced', 'For the best service in town...' etc etc etc

 

Its also likely to put paid to those other website claims in relation to competitors, such as 'If your DJ doesn't have [pli, pat, pro-dub license] then they are operating illegally'

 

"The principle that ads have to be legal, decent, honest and truthful is now going to extend to companies' claims on their own websites," said Matt Wilson, of the ASA

 

So as an advisory,

 

(i) Don't use Association Memberships, or having documentation such as Pat, Pli, Pro-Dub etc to be dressed up and sold to the client for anything more than they actually are worth and represent. Yes they show that the operator takes their business responsibilities seriously and covers their Ar$e where its needed, but thats all. It doesn't make you any better at the actual job than the DJ working next door. Sadly, some are still using 'paid' memberships to promote themselves as being part of some kind of vetted trade body or professional acreditation, via their websites.

 

(ii) Don't mislead clients by stating that the things above are a legal requirement for ALL Dj's to operate, if they aren't. PLI is not a legal requirement and neither is having a Pro-Dub license if you choose not to convert media from an original format to a digital means of play out.

 

Looks like some DJ's may have a busy few weeks ahead of them :ads: