[ Thanks to Francesco Marchetti-Stasi
for this report: ]
You might recall
my article concerning the advertising campaign of BSA in Italy.
Well, there are still no news from the the Italian Antitrust Authority, but the
Advertising Standard
Authority (I know, we’ve got plenty of Authorities in
Italy…:), on December 12th, sentenced the following:
“The Authority, after examining the documentation and
hearing the parties, states that the broadcast advertising does not
conform to the articles n. 2 and n. 8 of the Advertising Regulation
Code, and orders its cessation.”
The complet sentence isn’t yet available. In the meantime,
here’s the translation of the mentioned articles (not very fluent,
I’m not good at legal English and I haven’t got a good dictionary
at hand…)
“Art. 2: Untrustworthy advertising
Advertising must avoid declarations or representations such as to
induce in error the consumers, even by means of omission, ambiguity
or exaggeration not evidently hyperbolic, especially concerning the
features and the effects of the advertised goods, their price,
gratuitousness, or selling conditions, their diffusion, the
identity of the represented persons, and eventual prizes or
recognitions.”
“Art. 8: Superstition, credulity and fear
Advertising must avoid appealing to superstition, credulity and,
unless there is good reason, fear.”
Well, I couldn’t say it better myself! Many thanks to Emmanuele Somma, who filed the suits
to the Italian Authorities, and to the Advertising Authority for
its sentence. With this sentence, BSA will not be able to use the
advertising again; we are also eager to see a sentence from the
AGCM, which would force BSA to transmit corrective ads! It might be
interesting to see how they would fare…
So, if you see anything similar in your country, be optimistic
and file suits to your local authorities… and don’t forget to
keep the community informed!
Happily from Italy,
FMS.