TNT has hit back at the ad watchdog after it banned a regional ad campaign for the company following a complaint by rival Royal Mail over claims it operated under the same rules and regulations.
The initiative, devised by Leamington Spa agency Sutcliffe Reynolds Fitzgerald, was designed to promote the roll out of TNT’s services in Manchester; part of a wider strategy to expand into final mile deliveries.
It featured a photo of a man in a TNT uniform and stated: “What does my postie look like? Like this – in a smart uniform which our posties wear at all times on duty. Like Royal Mail, all are CRB-checked and fully trained in how to keep mail safe and secure.”
It added: “We operate under exactly the same rules and regs as Royal Mail – authorised by the Government to carry mail and watched over by Ofcom.”
But the campaign did not go down so well with Royal Mail bosses, who complained to the Advertising Standards Authority. Five issues were raised, including whether the ad was misleading because TNT was not required to deliver to every address in the UK on a next-day basis in the way Royal Mail was.
Royal Mail also complained that the ad suggested TNT delivered mail all over the UK itself and implied the service provided by TNT was better than the service provided by Royal Mail.
In its defence, TNT said the ad was intended to reassure consumers about the security of mail rather than frequency of delivery and where it did not have its own network, it subcontracted Royal Mail to deliver, enabling it to provide a service across the UK.
The ASA said the ad suggested that TNT was subject to the same service levels as Royal Mail in all aspects of its service, including the Universal Service obligation to deliver to every UK address every day, which was not the case.
It also said the reference to mail being “delivered … all over the UK” was misleading because there was no qualifying information to explain that delivery to most areas in the UK could not be carried out by TNT.
Finally it found that information in the ad did not allow readers to identify for themselves how TNT was superior to Royal Mail in respect of how its prices compared to those offered by Royal Mail.
Banning the ad, the ASA warned to TNT to ensure future ads did not suggest that the firm was subject to the same service levels as Royal Mail; that it delivered mail to all parts of the UK; or that its prices were competitive compared to Royal Mail unless it could substantiate claim.
A TNT Post spokeswoman said: “Whilst we disagree with the findings, we will comply with the request for greater clarity in the future.”
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