Staking A Claim

In this media-saturated age, many of us have become cynical about advertising – especially the claims that one product is the biggest, best or cheapest.

But even seemingly innocuous claims can get you into trouble.

Earlier this month, advertising for the cold sore cream Zovirax came to the attention of the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code Council.

The manufacturers had a used a throw away line ‘nothing works faster’ in their TVCs but were now being called upon to prove it by product rival Novtaris.

Specifically the makers of Zovirax were told, the council held : that although the words 'Zovirax: nothing works faster' "did not amount to a claim that Zovirax was faster than all other cold sore medicines, it still breached the advertising code because it couldn't be verified."

It reminds us that travel agency Flight Centre in January this year was instructed to get rid of their long-standing positioning statement ‘Lowest Airfares Guaranteed’.

ACCC believed the slogan indicated that the airfares were guaranteed to be the lowest available, which were not always so and therefore misled the public.
After its own survey of airfares, the commission said Flight Centre's claim of "global buying power" to get better deals was untrue, because the company books airfares on an individual basis.

The ACCC ordered the company not to use the slogan for five years and to put correction notices in stores and newspapers.

The lesson is businesses are better to be truthful about their products and services and always position the business to ‘under promise, but over deliver’.