In 2007 I complained to the Advertising Standards Agency and Press Complaints Commission about a company called Churchcastle and its wordsearch competitions in the Daily Mirror (and other newspapers / magazines). I felt these competitions were fleecing the public, by getting them to use premium rate phone lines to claim their (cheap) jewellery prizes and give away their private details (to be sold on to whoever?). As one would expect the PCC didn't want to know and the ASA said I was the only one complaining about it and they didn't want to take up the complaint. I kept at it and finally, last year, the ASA did take on the case. Today I see in the Daily Mirror (Penman & Sommerlad Investigate pages 24/25 - see above link) that Churchcastle has been fined £800,000. So, folks, it's worth persevering when you see injustice. It's a pity the newspapers, who obviously put advertising revenue above the protection of their readers, don't have to apologise to those readers for allowing the competition onto their pages. In additon, those newspapers / magazines who carried the competition, in my view, were complicit in this and should compensate their readers - mostly elderly I gather, who were scammed.
Interestingly I wrote this on my previous blog 'I really should be writing' back on Oct 20th 2008:
Churchcastle Ltd (trading as Spencer and Mayfair 2007) have a full page advert in today's copy of the Daily Mirror (page 47) suggesting that people can solve a word puzzle and 'claim' a 'stunning emerald pendant' - however, what it places in print (around font size 6, I guess) at the bottom of the page is that the call to claim one's stunning emerald pendent lasts 3 minutes and 30 seconds (at £1.50 per minute on BT landline - god knows what it would be from a mobile) at the end of that call you will be asked if you wish to transfer to another phone line to receive a 'matching bracelet' - if one does that then the call will last 3minutes (again at £1.50 per minute). So, 6mins 30 secs at £1.50 per min = £9.75! Well at least Churchcastle have dropped the heading of 'Do you qualify for a genuine emerald pendant', which they used in two previous adverts for the same thing last year. Some interesting links - I'm assuming here that the Churchcastle Ltd mentioned is the Churchcastle Ltd of the above - fair assumption?ASA Non-broadcast Adjudication: Churchcastle Ltd t/a UK Cash Rewards The Office of Fair Trading: Prize promoter gives undertakings to High Court This is a really interesting link - it was actually published in the Daily Mirror in 2002 They cash in on trash - Investigations Maybe the Daily Mirror doesn't look at its back copies.
No comments:
Post a Comment