Brooke 'unique' claims misleading, rules ASA

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 16 Sep 2009

The advertising regulator has banned an advert for The Brooke, finding its claims that the charity is ‘unique’ to be misleading.

In an overturning of a decision earlier this year, the Advertising Standards Authority has ordered that a press insert published by The Brooke Hospital for Animals which emphasised that the charity benefited both animals and their owners, and that the charity is ‘unique’, must not appear again in its current form.

The regulator said that the advert, developed by Whitewater and featuring the text “Now there's one charity that can help them both" above the statement that "The animal charity that helps people too" implied that The Brooke was a new charity and unique in its servicing of both animals and people.

The Brooke had defended the advertisement, reporting that none of its current supporters it tested the advert on had found it misleading.

The charity said it had done extensive research among its existing supporter base and found that the concept that a donor could support both animals and humans was a new one to many people, thus the advert focused on The Brooke’s work with both.

A spokeswoman for the Brooke said: "The Brooke is disappointed by the ASA adjudication which comes in response to one complaint received in October 2008. This complaint was ‘not upheld’ by the ASA in its original ruling in February 2009. The Brooke is reassured however that it did not receive any other complaints from the public nor its own supporters directly.

"The advert ran as part of this wider campaign – a campaign that was very successful and by its close had attracted over 17,000 new supporters. These supporters were enthused by the idea of being able to help both working horses, donkeys and mules and their poor owners at the same time.

"The Brooke is determined to continue to highlight the suffering of working animals and their importance as a source of income for poor families in the most effective ways we can."

Directory: The Brooke
Who's Who: Celina Ribeiro

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.