A Kellogg’s promotion has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority after it was deemed misleading, even though the company claimed it had run it past the Institute of Promotional Marketing (IPM).
A TV ad, national press ad, and sales promotion on Kellogg’s cereal packaging encouraged consumers to collect codes from cereal packets and use them to claim a free box of cereal. But the campaign received a number of complaints when the cereals available proved to be very limited; and even the box sizes were smaller.
In response Kellogg’s claimed it had they had sought advice from the IPM), who had no concerns about the promotion’s terms and conditions and were happy with the artwork that was submitted to them. However, the IPM was not asked to comment on, or approve, the TV and national press advertising.
The ASA concluded that the ads were likely to mislead and disappoint consumers, because they did not make clear that the range of free cereals did not include the cereals shown in the ads Kellogg’s did not make clear the size of the packs which could be claimed for free. Although it clearly listed which brands could be claimed for free, it gave no information about the size of the free boxes.
It ruled the ads must not be run again in their current form and told Kellogg’s that if it repeated the promotion, it should make clear that the range of free cereals was entirely separate, in terms of brands and pack sizes, from the range of cereals carrying promotional codes.
