ASA receives complaints about Friends Provident

 

April 9, 2008

The advertising regulator in the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority, has received a number of complaints about a financial services provider with regards to an advertisement that was run by the company. The complaints were about the financial provider Friends Provident after the company launched an advertising campaign that involved sending out a leaflet that looked like x-ray results from the doctor or hospital.

The advertisement that was sent out by Friends Provident was promoting income protection. However, the advertisement was sent out in a brown envelope that said that it should not be bent because it contained x-ray images. The flyer inside looked like an x-ray result, and as a result many consumers that were actually waiting for results became confused. The mailing was sent out to around ten thousand people, and whilst only a handful have made a complaint the ASA has said that in understands how the mailing could have caused distress to those awaiting such results.

Complainants said that the mailing seemed to be was “masquerading as official medical records”. The company said that the advertisement was sent out as part of a test run, and has apologised to those customers that complained. The ASA said that the advertise could easily have been confused with real test results by some consumers.

An official from the ASA went on to state: “We were concerned that the approach had caused alarm to some recipients and had misled them to believe the envelope contained official medical records belonging to them or their loved ones.”

It added: “We concluded that the envelope should have stated clearly that it contained marketing material to avoid giving a misleading impression of its contents and causing distress to recipients.”

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