RGDATA tackles ‘misleading’ Tesco campaign
Tesco Ireland spokesman Dermot Breen has admitted some prices in the Change for Good campaign have been readjusted, despite being promoted as long-term price reductions.
Print15 August 2009
Both the NCA and Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) have responded to correspondence from independent grocery trade body RGDATA informing them of ‘misleading advertising’ by Tesco. Last month director general Tara Buckley wrote to the watchdogs advising them that Tesco is claiming its ‘Change for Good’ price cuts are genuine long-term reductions on 12,500 goods, when in fact many have been only short-term cuts.
Buckley wrote once more to the ASA following a radio interview opposite Tesco Ireland spokesman Dermot Breen, during which he admitted that some prices in the Change for Good campaign have been readjusted subsequent to their supposed long-term reduction. She said this statement underlined her point to the advertising watchdog that the retailer’s claim of “long-term price cuts” was false advertising.
Buckley also referred to the recent row between Tesco and Unicef in Ireland over the use of the Change for Good title. The Irish Times reported that: “The retailer is understood to have agreed the campaign was only for the summer,” which again undermines the claim by Tesco that the price-cutting programme is intended for the long-term. Buckley said she would be relating this detail to the ASA, as “once again Tesco has reiterated that this is just a short-term promotion.”
The NCA has written to Buckley saying that it is “actively looking into” the issues raised, and the ASA has also indicated that it is pursuing the matter.
Tesco’s most recent national radio ads, airing on RTÉ Radio One, omit the words “long-term” but instead mention only “12,500 price cuts.”
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