Advertising what you can and cannot say
We all know how important marketing and advertising our goods and services are to achieve sales. There are so many ways to do this on so many different platforms, with so many gurus to tell us the best way. It’s important, however, to keep in mind that there are rules about what we can and cannot say.
The law prohibits commercial entities from misleading actions – that is publishing an advert which gives false information; misleading omissions – such as publishing an advert that does not give information about the minimum duration of a contract; aggressive practices – such as knowingly exploiting a misfortune to take advantage of the customer’s impaired judgement at that time; and as a catch all for undesirable practices which do not fall into the above categories, the law prevents commercial practices which contravene professional diligence.
There are also rules about comparative advertising which mean you have to be careful that you do not mislead the consumer, do not infringe another’s intellectual property rights or try and pass off your product/brand as someone else’s and you do not defame competitors.
The main place to look is the CAP Code (the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sale Promotion and Direct Marketing) and the BCAP Code (the UK Code of Broadcast Advertising) for guidance on what you can and cannot do in your marketing.
If you would like advice on the guidance then please contact Hannah Scott at h.scott@waldrons.co.uk
