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ASA rules Telegraph readers’ offer ‘likely to mislead’

By Oliver Luft

Telegraph Media Group has been censured by the Advertising Standards Authority over a readers’ offer about men’s pyjamas.

The advertising watchdog banned the newspaper company from running the offer in its current form after upholding a complaint from a reader over claims that the pyjamas were made by a leading British manufacturer.

The offer stated “Classic Tootal men’s pyjamas” which were “Manufactured by a leading British manufacturer, Tootal”.

The complainant challenged whether the claim about “a leading British manufacturer” was misleading, because he believed that Tootal was a brand and did not make clothes in the UK.

Telegraph Media Group told the ASA that Tootal was a British company which manufactured pyjamas in its own factory in South Korea.

The newspaper publisher told the ads watchdog it believed the “leading British manufacturer” claim did not suggested that Tootal manufactured in the UK but merely stated the fact that it is British.

The ASA acknowledged that Tootal was a registered British company but upheld the complaint.

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The ASA ruling stated: “We considered that, because the ad specifically referred to a “British manufacturer”, readers would therefore understand that the manufacture took place in the UK.

“Because that was not the case, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead.”

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