An advertising campaign by Guinness showing a pint of stout with the word "Goodness" written on it has been found to be in breach of advertising standards.
The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) yesterday upheld a complaint from a member of the public, who claimed the advert was offensive and that it was misleading to portray alcohol as goodness.
The advertisers, Guinness Ireland Group, said a strap line underneath the pint said: "The most natural thing in the world" and the message it was communicating was that goodness, like drinking a pint of Guinness, was one of the most natural things in the world.
The code of advertising standards says that advertisers may state an opinion about the quality or desirability of a product, provided it is clear that what they are expressing is their own opinion rather than a matter of fact. The ASAI considered the use of the word goodness went beyond a matter of subjective opinion. It was also concerned about the use of "the most natural thing in the world" phrase.
A separate complaint made by TV3 about a newspaper advertisement by RTÉ, which claimed the top 100 TV programmes of 2001 were all on RTÉ, was also upheld. The advertisement listed the top soap as Fair City and the top imported soap as EastEnders. TV3 argued this was incorrect and that the average episode audience for Coronation Street in the Republic was 710,000 individuals compared to 616,000 for EastEnders and 523,000 for Fair City.
RTÉ said TV3 appeared to be combining UTV and TV3 audience figures.
The ASAI said that, as programmes can be shown on more than one channel viewable by an Irish audience, it did not consider it appropriate that the ranking by audience size on one particular channel on a particular day was a suitable measurement of the popularity of the programme among Irish viewers generally.
Complaints about misleading advertisements by two auctioneers were also upheld. One by Hooke & MacDonald said houses in Gorey were "within easy commuting distance of Dublin by rail or car". The ASAI did not agree. The earliest train from Gorey arrived in Dublin at 10.23 a.m.
Mr Ciarán Cuffe, the Green Party's planning, housing and local government spokesman, who complained about the advert, yesterday welcomed the ASAI decision and called on the authority to introduce penalties. The only sanction at present is an order to discontinue the offending advertisement.
Another advert for new homes in Drogheda placed by Thomas Byrne Auctioneer stated there were eight trains to Dublin every morning and the journey time was "from only 32 minutes". However, the rail timetable showed journeys could take up to 58 minutes.
A campaign by the Irish Prize Bonds Company headed "Prize Bonds arrangements for Euro changeover - Prize values set to increase!" was also found wanting by the ASAI, because it "could reasonably be interpreted by consumers to mean that all prize values were set to increase" when in fact some decreased.