An advertisement in the Daily Express readers' offers section, which promised to remove car scratches in minutes, has been criticised as "misleading" by the Advertising Standards Authority.
The ASA upheld a complaint from an Express reader who had purchased Proformula, which had been advertised as a "fast and effective scratch remover" that "removes rust repairs scratches in paint, chrome and enamel without hours of sanding, priming and re-painting".
The reader had complained to the ASA when Proformula did not remove scratches on his car.
In the advert, two "before and after" pictures were shown – scratches visible in the first picture had disappeared in the second.
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The product's manufacturers, Easylife Group, said it was an "ideal pre-sale paint finishing material or compliment to good quality car polish", but added that on some surfaces on "improvements" could be seen after use. Easylife also sent the ASA test results which they claimed proved the product's effectiveness.
In its adjudication the ASA said: "We considered that in combination with the photo showing no scratches, the claim ‘Scratch Remover' in the present ad exaggerated the results the product was likely to achieve. We concluded that the ad was misleading."
The Express said it would not run the ad again until the ASA's verdict.
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