A company that collects clothing has been forced to change its collection bags after an Advertising Standards Agency ruling that it gave too much prominence to a charity name.

Recycle Proline Ltd was forced to ensure its adverts clarify that it is a commercial organisation, and that those donating clothes are not directly donating to a charity.

The ruling came following a complaint that the company had used the name of registered charity Cancer Research and Genetics UK on the side of its bags.

A complainant suggested the presentation of the advert was misleading because it “did not make sufficiently clear the commercial nature of the business given the prominence of the charity message”.

The company said that they had had “made changes to the design of their clothing collection bags following a previous complaint to the ASA”.

The company told the ASA they “felt that they had already sufficiently addressed any potentially misleading aspects of the ad. They believed that the new complaint was without merit and expressed concerns that making further amendments could have a detrimental impact on their business”.

The ASA noted that “there was no mention of the advertiser’s name or company status on the front of the bag, which was likely to have the greatest impact on recipients”.

It said that the charity name and registration number were given more prominence than the details of the company undertaking the collection, and as a result it considered “that this was likely to give consumers the misleading impression that they were donating directly to the charity”.

It ruled that the advert must not appear again in its current form.