A furniture maker has been rebuked over an ad that made misleading comparisons about the prices and quality of its products.
The ad from Made.com Design on the London Underground stated: "Furniture direct from the makers. By the time the average sofa hits the high street it's been marked up by 500%. Agents, importers and wholesalers all add a little extra along the way. Our unique and award-winning concept cuts out the middle steps and passes the savings on to you."
The ad listed three products and compared the advertiser's price against a "typical high street" price. Small print at the bottom of the ad stated "High street price is based on closest equivalent products in design and functionality".
But the ad prompted two complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over the "typical high street" price claim because Made.com was the sole vendor of the products listed. The complainants also challenged whether the products they were being compared to were equivalent in quality.
Made.com explained that the products it offered were unique and therefore competing products would vary in certain respects, for example, in design and functionality, finish and materials, but it did not consider that those differences meant that the items were not direct substitutes.
The company also pointed out that the ad stated that the typical high street price was based on closest equivalent products in design and functionality, and did not think consumers would expect competing furniture to be identical.
With regard to the claim about typical high street price, the company said that was based on comparing the price of one of its products with the average price of three high street alternatives with very similar look and style.
However, the ad watchdog decided that because it was not always possible to tell whether the products were of a similar quality, the price comparisons were misleading.
The ASA told Made.com to ensure it made clear the basis of its comparisons in future and that the products used as the basis of their price comparisons might vary in terms of the quality of the finish and materials used.