A Debenhams Facebook advert advertising up to 60% off in the retailer’s sale has been banned for misleading claims.
A paid-for Facebook ad for the online department store, seen on 9 March 2024, featured a caption that read “Step into Spring with up to 60% off fashion, home and beauty at Debenhams”.
Below the caption, a carousel of images featuring different products was shown next to text stating “up to 60% off” as well as a “shop now” link.
However, a complainant, who understood not all of the items featured were available at the advertised discounted price, challenged whether the claim “up to 60% off” was misleading and could be substantiated.
In response, the retailer said third-party suppliers decided whether to take part in a promotion, and therefore claimed it was beyond their control if those partners decided to exclude certain items from a Debenhams promotion.
Additionally, since the products featured were from third-party suppliers who controlled their own pricing for legal reasons, Debenhams insisted they were not able to obtain the relevant sales data.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which banned a Warehouse advert for featuring an ‘unhealthily thin’ model last year, considered that shoppers would interpret the advert as claiming all of the products featured were included in the promotion.
Additionally, it said it had not received the pricing history of any of the products from the retailer, and that only one of the three product listings appeared to have a promotional price applied.
Furthermore, it acknowledged while the promotion appeared to have been applied to one of the items featured in the advert, because Debenhams had not provided any sales data to verify it had been sold at the higher reference price, it could not confirm the price at which it was normally sold.
Due to this, the ASA concluded the advert was misleading and had breached the code, with the advert banned from appearing in its current form.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
