The Advertising Standards Authority – the advertising watchdog – has ruled that a leaflet concerning a proposed new Tesco shop that was distributed by Tesco itself constituted advertising and should be regulated under the CAP Code. The CAP Code is a code of practice governing the content of adverts and marketing communications, and it is administered by the ASA. Although the Code does not have legal force, it is best practice to comply with it, as failure to do so can result in bad publicity and ultimately an inability to obtain advertising space.
In this case, the ASA ruled that Tesco's leaflet was misleading and broke the CAP Code. The leaflet had claimed that there was a need and demand for a new food shop in the Manningtree area. The ASA said that this suggested that a majority were in favour, when in fact only 8.6% of respondents to a telephone survey believed that a new supermarket would be useful.
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