Morrisons Rapped Over Price Comparison Ad

Thu, 06 Aug 2009
 
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Morrisons has been slammed by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over a "misleading" price comparison advert which suggested the supermarket was cheaper than its major rivals.

The ad compared the price of a trolley-load of Morrisons products with a trolley full of similar goods from Tesco, Asda and Sainsburys .

It stated that the Morrisons trolley would cost shoppers £30.82, compared to £50.30 at Asda, £54.73 at Sainsbury's and £57.47 at Tesco .

Following a complaint by Asda, the ASA investigated the ad and ruled that the comparison was flawed as it did not make it "sufficiently clear" that it included Morrisons' promotional prices and its competitor’s non-promotional prices.

In its defence, Morrisons stressed that "in no way" was the advert intended to be portrayed as a "representative shopping trolley" and "there was no attempt to mislead or deceive the public".

But despite the supermarket’s plea, the ASA upheld the complaint and said that it must not appear again in its current form.

The watchdog said: "We told Morrisons to make clear in future when comparisons involving their promotional prices were made against competitors' everyday prices."

"We also told them not to imply that advertised savings were representative of a typical shop if that was not the case."

The ASA action comes a week after Tesco was slammed by the watchdog over complaints from Asda, Aldi and a member of the public that it’s 'baskets' comparison adverts on TV and in the national press did not always compare like-for-like products.

Tesco was ordered to pull the "ambiguous" and "misleading" ads and told they must not be shown again in their current form.

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