Advertising body upholds complaint against 'quaint' housing development

A complaint against an advertisement which described a Co Meath housing development as "quaint" and having a "tranquil setting" was upheld by the advertising complaints body in part when the objector pointed out that there was "a non-stop stream of large juggernauts passing through both day and night".

The Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI) said such terms were inappropriate for the development at Brackinraney Manor, Enfield Road, Longwood. However, it rejected other parts of the complaint including one that a reference to Enfield town was misleading. The ASAI said no particular claims were included on proximity or ease of access.

The complaint was one of 19 adjudicated on, of which 17 were found to be in breach of the codes of advertising standards on various grounds of decency and propriety, truthfulness, alcohol and sales promotions.

Mobile phone companies Vodafone and O2 registered complaints about each other's poster advertising; NTL complained about Sky press advertising; and there were a number of complaints about retail advertising.

Vodafone complained that an O2 poster at Dublin airport referred to itself as "Ireland's premier mobile network". The company objected particularly to the use of "premier". The ASAI upheld the complaint on the grounds that "any complaint that a product is superior to others should be made only where there is clear evidence to support the claim".

O2 objected to a range of posters by Vodafone which made "superlative" claims including best-quality sound experience and best-ever call completion rate.The ASAI upheld three of the four objections on the grounds that figures supplied by Vodafone showed improved performance on their own figures but no comparative information was provided.

An advertisement by the airport bus service, Aircoach, claiming that coaches ran every 15 minutes at peak time was described as misleading, when a complainant said he had waited for 56 minutes before a coach arrived at Leopardstown in Dublin. The owners said their coaches left the airport on a high-frequency basis and the journey times on the day in question were affected by traffic congestion.

The ASAI said the claim of "every 15 minutes" was misleading because it was not guaranteed. It sought further information from the advertisers but they were unable to furnish the additional information, and in the absence of this the ASAI upheld the complaint.

A complaint about Emerald Star cruises was also upheld, on health and safety grounds, because it advertised that the decision a customer would have to make would be whether to have another drink or two.

Other complaints upheld included an objection to a Carte d'Or ice cream advertisement portraying an elderly woman as suffering from dementia. The advert had run five years previously without complaint.