ASA raps Nuts for ‘Europe’s best-selling magazine’ claim

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has this week upheld a complaint by EMAP about an e-mail alert from IPC Ignite-owned lads magazine Nuts that claims it is the best-selling men’s magazine in Europe.

The ASA has ruled that as figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABCs) showed FHM sold more magazines per issue than Nuts, the former could substantiate the claim, while the latter could not.

ABC figures show FHM has sold on average 560,167 copies per monthly issue, while Nuts has sold 304,751. On this basis, the ASA ruled that Nuts’ claim to be the “biggest selling men’s magazine in Europe” is misleading and has told IPC not to repeat the claim in its advertising.

⢠The ASA has also upheld a complaint against an HMV poster ad that claims the retailer is “top dog for music downloads…” The complainant said the ad implied HMV has the biggest catalogue of digital music, yet in fact a competitor has a greater digital catalogue and an 80 per cent market share.

⢠The ASA has upheld a complaint from Animal Aid against a brochure by the Countryside Alliance promoting its shooting strategy, in which it was claimed a shooting school raised &£1m for “good causes”. The CA said it did not believe the brochure was a marketing communication. The ASA did not agree and has found the CA could not substantiate the claim that the school had raised the stated amount or that it had been given to good causes.

⢠The ASA has ruled that British Gas ads promoting its 2010 “price freeze” are misleading and did not make clear that customers would have to pay a premium to secure a “freeze” on prices.