An ad for Walkers Crisps' 'Spell and Go' competition, offering a chance to win one of 20,000 holidays, has been deemed 'misleading' by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
The competition invited customers to collect codes from crisp packets - entered online, these codes gave access to letters and with the right letters collected to spell out one of 26 destinations, participants could win a holiday at that location. Customers soon noticed that the letters C, D and K, needed to complete destinations - including New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo - were very hard to find.
The ASA's investigation, in response to over 100 complaints, found that although enough of these letters were provided through codes on packets, none could be found in the 'random swap' pool online. It concluded that failing to provide this information meant that the advertising was misleading, as it misrepresented the participants' chances.
A Walkers spokesperson commented: "We appreciate that the online letter swapping system could have been clearer and we will ensure all future promotions take this feedback on board."
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Martha Sparrius. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
