CAP calls summit to stop vacuum ad war

The Committee on Advertising Practice (CAP) has called a summit meeting with the UK’s vacuum cleaner industry to bring to an end its tit-for-tat advertising war.

CAP claims its sister organisation the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is spending too much time resolving disputes between manufacturers such as Dyson and Hoover over exaggerated performance claims.

It has written to the 14 UK manufacturers asking them to stop making claims which they cannot possibly hope to back up.

It is calling on the industry to work together on a common standard for measuring vacuum cleaner performance, and bring to an end the constant disputes.

Since 1995, the ASA has received 52 complaints about 37 vacuum cleaner ads. Only 19 of these were from members of the public, with the remainder coming from competing manufacturers.

A CAP spokesman says: “This is not CAP wagging its finger at the industry, but we want them to get together round a table and sort their differences out. There needs to be a level playing field.”

A spokeswoman for Dyson Appliances, welcomed CAP’s intervention. She says: “We have been campaigning for a common standard for a long time, so we are very much in favour of this.”

Electrolux, Hoover and Sanyo also welcomed moves towards a common standard.