Poor advertisement

“We will expand our monitoring activities [in 2004/5] to include television commercials and we will also have a general focus on direct offer materials,” the FSA signalled in its latest Business Plan. The regulator added that it already receives a “steady flow” of reports about misleading promotions from consumers and that it intends to set up a hotline to encourage further notifications. The six-month statistics on misleading advertisements, for 1 July to 31 December 2003, released in mid-February, reveal that 118 (40%) out of 294 cases referred to the FSA originated from the public. A further 118 were detected by the Authority and the remaining 56 (20%) were advised by the firms themselves. The products that gave rise to the greatest number of complaints were precipice bonds (income producing structured capital-at-risk products [SCARPs]), spread betting, pensions unlocking vehicles and share tipping. In its study of promotions carried in 40 regional newspaper the FSA found none that required remedial action. However, a review of daytime television commercials, primarily on Channels 4 and 5, prompted concerns in a small number of cases and in two examples, the Authority is contemplating enforcement measures.