One of Tesco’s major offensives against rival Asda – the Tesco Price Check campaign – has been banned by the ad watchdog after it ruled that the retailer had “hidden” a £20 limit on money-back claims.
The campaign, featuring a TV ad, website and leaflet, showed a range of products available at Tesco. The TV ad voice-over stated “At Tesco, we understand times are tough, so we’ve lowered over 1,000 prices right across the store … And you can now check the price of your shop at Tesco Price Check and if you find your comparable grocery shopping cheaper at Asda, we’ll happily refund double the difference …”
But after running for a few weeks, Tesco introduced the £20 limit on March 24, claiming it was to stop customers from “tactically shopping”. The move sparked a number of complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority, with consumers unhappy that they could only find out about the limit by visiting the FAQ section of the Tesco website.
The ad had been cleared by Clearcast, but at that time Tesco had not introduced the £20 limit. Clearcast said that if it had known that Tesco was planning to introduce the limit, it would have advised the retailer to add a message explaining the change.
Defending the move, Tesco claimed it had made little difference to the number of people using Price Check. However, deeper analysis of the figures showed this was not the case.
The ASA ruled that the campaign was misleading, and must not be used again in its current form. It told Tesco to ensure that significant conditions were included in the main body of its advertising.
