Hachette
This global part-work issuer was castigated
last week by the Advertising Standards
Agency (ASA) for failing to make
clear that their current 'Build a London
Routemaster Bus' part-work would run for 130 issues and cost consumers a
total of more than £1,150.
The company said it had made the cost clear
(on its website), but the ASA was having none of it and banned the TV-ad'
promoting the publication, as the TV-ad' was considered to be misleading.
The real news here, as I see it; is why it
has taken 30+ years to point out the bleeding obvious?
Because it requires an actual complaint, from
a named complainant, willing to appear as a witness, before most modern
watchdogs are able to act at all, under their - quite deliberately -
ham-stringing Thatcherite-Raganomic remits, which put business (not 'big'
business; all business) ahead of natural justice, or the rule of law.
It's not enough to know there are snake-oil
salesmen, but to have to find villagers willing to paint their houses red, to
scare them off!
Atlas Editions
It's not the first time the ASA has acted recently; they also upheld
a complaint against Atlas Editions UK
Ltd., back in August of last year, again 'misleading' sales techniques were
fingered by the beak, only this time it was the website considered out of
order, not the media publicity.
Other part-works are Available
A set of Zippo lighters, never to light anything? A 'Merrythough' Bear which costs more than all the bears, rabbits &etc of my entire childhood! Paddington coins and a DC/UK thing, I would write more but this weeks got off to a busy start and I'm all over the place!
Close-ups of the important bits, in the bear's defence; he is rather smart! But who would want a whole display of rather hideous Zippo's, identical to the other 9,000 (that's; NINE . . . Thousand) sets? Madness!
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