All Eyes On Comparative Advertising – Who Is Your Audience?

Comparative advertising has long been employed by businesses as a marketing tool to convince consumers to choose their product over one offered by their competitors. However, businesses need to be extremely careful claims to ensure that any comparative claims are not misleading and deceptive.

A recent Federal Court decision involving a Specsavers advertisement demonstrates the approach courts will adopt when identifying the audience to whom representations are made in order to determine whether or not the representations are misleading. A Specsavers TV and internet advertisement compared OPSM and Specsavers' pricing. Part of the advertisement had an image of a single pair of glasses underneath the logo for "OPSM" and with the words "paid over $480 on average" under the graphic. The "$480" was in large, bold text and was the prominent part of the graphic. The advertisement also involved a voiceover, stating "on average, OPSM customers paid over $480 for their