Carphone Warehouse given a stern talking to for 'misleading' radio ad

Carphone Warehouse was given a particularly withering stare by the Advertising Standards Agency in a ruling handed down today concerning one of its radio adverts. The ad, played back in July, claimed that customers could save an average of £152 by using the Warehouse over its major competitors. However, while its other adverts …

[chriswakey]

Bugger the story, why does the Fiat 500 in the picture straddle two parking spaces?!?

[A K Stiles]

re: crap parking

'cos they had to park away from the Focus hugging the line? Both arses, both in need of a driving lesson or two.

I have seen (in the UK) the occasional car like a Corvette parked centrally over a white line in a pay for parking bay, with a ticket on each side of the dashboard which seemed pretty fair given the relative width of the car and the parking bays, and the crazy price of the parking too!

[lybad]

Re: re: crap parking

But surely it's a Fiesta on each side. Maybe need to Focus more on it?

[A K Stiles]

Re: re: crap parking

Meh, could be - saw Ford badge, 4 doors, badly parked. Same principle though.

[agurney]

re. Bugger the story

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt - I'd park like that if I was dropping of my son with his wheelchair and there were no disabled parking spaces nearby (he can only transfer with the passenger door fully opened).

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: re. Bugger the story

".. I'd park like that if I was dropping of my son with his wheelchair ..."

Good luck getting a wheelchair in the boot of a 500.

[tiggity]

Re: re. Bugger the story

The seats fold down so if driver & 1 passenger only then lots of storage space.

It's quite a high space and so can get some things in 500 that do not fit in larger cars, with greater storage volume but lower height

[Anonymous Coward]

Lady drivers.

Good tip though - watch out for Fiat 500's and the newish Mini's. They usually have good looking female drivers.

I don't know why, but it's true about 80% of the time.

[Anonymous Coward]

The parking space to the side seems awfully large compared to the others, it must be reserved for parents that drive big ass 4x4's picking up the kids from schools in narrow streets.

[Halfmad]

at least you can see the lines

Waitrose near my work has spaces with lines, but the lines are basically different colour monoblock which changes to the same colour as the rest when it rains. So being in the UK this means for the next 9 months or so it'll be a demolition derby in there, happens every year.

[Anonymous Coward]

>Bugger the story, why does the Fiat 500 in the picture straddle two parking spaces?!?

A real fat bastard drives a small car using two seats, one for each cheek.

[Anonymous Coward]

"A real fat bastard drives a small car using two seats, one for each cheek."

One wonders where the gear stick would go in such a scenario.

[Aladdin Sane]

"must not use the ad again"

So no meaningful punishment then?

[djstardust]

Re: "must not use the ad again"

Come on guys .... these quangos purely exist to keep the gravy train going full speed with lots of 100k plus directors or whatever.

They serve no meaningful purpose whatsoever. end of.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "must not use the ad again"

At least it took five months, the BT most powerful wifi advert took over a year to resolve, by that time the damage was done, muppets bought it, result!!

Now BT are putting out a tv advert which is fine unless you are deaf, yep no words to point out its the most powerful vs leading isp's router, which was the ruling in the first place. Is it worth informing the ASA?, no, better of going down the pub, its more productive.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm aghast!

Another misleading advert, especially from a phone operator. Surely not!

[Anonymous Coward]

Three's a crowd obviously.

[Anonymous Coward]

As it says in the subheading.

[Anonymous Coward]

What ? Next you'll be telling us that super fast broadband isn't always super fast..

[BebopWeBop]

I complained to the ISA about both that and the 'up to' claims. They blew me off with a 'out definitions are neither) that precise (or considered)

[Anonymous Coward]

Mentioning a ménage à trois would be deemed a sexual abuse and someone would have to resign.

[Anonymous Coward]

it's fine as long as it wasn't four years ago.

[Shugyosha]

I wonder how this aligns with the values of the Carphone Warehouse?