An industry complaint has been upheld against property website Daft.ie.
The complaint arose after MyHome.ie brought to the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland’s attention that Daft.ie could not state it was “1st for buying, selling and renting” in certain locations as part of its outdoor poster campaign.
The locations involved included Bray, Dublin 2, Dun Laoghaire, Fairview, Finglas, Greystones, Blanchardstown, Dalkey, Templeogue, Kildare, Newbridge, Phibsboro, Portmarnock, Swords and Tallaght.
MyHome.ie in objecting to the advertising said that they did not consider that Daft could make a claim to be “1st for buying, selling and renting” in these areas.
They pointed out that the ASAI Code stated that “A claim that any product is superior to others should only be made where there is clear evidence to support the claim. Wording which implies superior or superlative status such as “number one”, “leading”, “largest” and the like should be capable of substantiation with market share data or similar proof.”
They said that they were unaware of any data that substantiated the claim and therefore believed the advertising to be misleading to the public. (They noted that Daft had not placed any source of data reference on the posters).
Despite Daft’s attempts to substantiate the claim, the complaint was upheld, with the ASAI finding that Daft could not demonstrate they were number one in each segment in the relevant area for buying, selling or rentals.
As this was not the case in Bray, Dalkey, Dublin 2, Dun Laoghaire, Dundrum, Fairview, Greystones, Phibsboro, Portmarnock, Ranelagh, Stillorgan, Tallaght and Templeogue, the Committee upheld the complaint against the advertising that referred to these areas.
As a result, the advert “should not run again” in the same format, according to the ASAI.
