ASA Adjudication on MGA Entertainment (UK) Ltd

Ad

A TV ad for Best Friends Club Ink dolls featured three young girls each playing with a different doll. A young girl's voice said "Best Friends Club here with Addison, Calista and me, Kaitlin". Superimposed text stated "Large dolls around £30" and "Fashion dolls around £15".

Issue

One viewer, who had tried to buy the Calista doll for her daughter, challenged whether the ad was misleading because the Calista doll was not available in the UK.

BCAP TV Code

Response

MGA Entertainment said that the inclusion of the Calista doll in the ad was an oversight. They had received a shipment of all three dolls at the time when the ad was made but after it was broadcast they became aware that retailers had chosen not to order the Calista doll from them. MGA Entertainment advised that the ad was no longer being broadcast and they would make appropriate amendments to any future versions should the Calista doll not be available.

Clearcast said that they received all three dolls as product samples and approved the ad accordingly.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA understood that MGA Entertainment had submitted the ad for broadcast before they knew if UK stores would stock the Calista doll. We noted that stores subsequently chose not to stock the doll.

Because the ad implied the doll was available to buy and because this was not the case we concluded the ad was misleading.

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rule 5.1.1 (Misleading advertising).

Action

We told MGA Entertainment that future versions of the ad should not feature the Calista doll unless it was available to buy.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)