COMPLAINTS ABOUT advertisements involving the pope in a pub, and a "new" ferry which was, in fact, not new, have been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland.
The authority's complaints committee examined objections to 24 advertisements and upheld 21 at its last meeting.
A consumer took issue with a Ryanair promotion that offered one-way flights for €5, including taxes and charges. He tried to book a flight for every day listed but could not get a flight at that price.
Ryanair did not respond to the committee's request for an explanation. The committee upheld the complaint and expressed "disappointment at the advertisers' failure to respond to the complaint".
The committee also asked that Ryanair's failure to respond to such complaints should be brought to the attention of the National Consumer Agency.
The Cuckoo Box bar in Limerick city was found to have breached the advertising code by using a digitally enhanced photograph depicting the pope in the pub, accompanied by the caption: "Look who we had for lunch yesterday." The advertisers did not respond to the complaint and this was noted by the committee when it upheld the complaint.
Another complainant took issue with an Irish Ferries press advertisement that stated the company was "proud to announce the arrival of our luxurious new cruise ferry".
While the ship was new to the Irish Ferries fleet, the complainant estimated that the ship was approximately 20 years old.
Irish Ferries defended the advertisement on the basis that the ship was a new addition to the fleet and had undergone a major refurbishment. It also disputed the age of the ship. However, the committee found that the advertisement was likely to mislead consumers and it upheld the complaint.
A direct mail label from the Irish Program of Unwanted Clothing Collection was also found to have breached the code. The label sought clothes from the public and quoted a registration number. The complainant said this was a deliberate attempt to mislead the public into thinking that this was a registered charity. The number actually referred to a company that had been dissolved years previously.
The committee tried to contact the advertiser but it received no reply. It upheld the complaint and said that "consumers should be alerted to the fact that some purported charity collections were in fact not actual charities".
Two complaints concerning promotions by the Irish Daily Mailwere received but only one was upheld.
A reader wished to enter a competition to win a powerboat and bought the newspaper every day to obtain the required 20 tokens. An address for entries was never published in the newspaper and the competition website address appeared to be invalid.
The advertisers said the failure to provide contact details was an error and it was regretted.
A complaint about a radio advertisement that claimed that "nothing holds its value like a Volkswagen" was also upheld.
The committee found that an Eircom promotion for a Talktime package breached the advertising code because it offered "unlimited calls" to the UK when in fact there was a limit of 1,000 minutes per month.
Similarly, a VHI brochure was found to be misleading when it claimed to "cover every cost" of a particular plan but did not appropriately qualify this statement.
