Who: The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and Portable Multimedia Ltd t/a Next Base (Next Base)
Where: United Kingdom
When: 5 June 2024
Law stated as at: 10 July 2024
What happened:
The ASA recently ruled that an ad posted by the dashcam brand Next Base on its website in January 2024 breached the UK Code of Non-Broadcast Advertising and Direct and Promotional Marketing (CAP Code) guidelines on misleading advertising. The ASA considered that footage used on the Next Base website to demonstrate the performance of its dashcams in low light and poor weather conditions did not accurately represent the performance of its cameras and, as a result, was misleading. The ASA, therefore, upheld the complaint against the ad.
Content of the ad
The ad on www.nextbase.co.uk for three of its dash-cam products included the headline “Enhanced Night Vision” and claimed that these dash cams were “capable of picking up the finer details such as number plates and road signs even in extreme low-light conditions”. The ad also claimed that two of the cameras could “capture and process superior image equality” and “provide a clear view of your surroundings, even at night“. The ad included an image of a view from a dashcam of a busy motorway at night with number plates clearly visible. Beneath this image was the text, “Dash Cams with Enhanced Night Vision“.
Next Base’s response
Next Base contended that their cameras could capture details such as number plates and road signs even in adverse conditions, such as high speeds, rain, low light or dirty windscreens that typically make such details less visible. They also expressed confidence in the capability of two of the cameras featured in the ad to “capture and process superior image quality” in comparison to both competitors’ products and their own alternative products.
The ASA’s assessment
The ASA’s ruling focused on the content on the image that featured in the ad. The ASA considered that consumers would understand the detailed, high-resolution image in which the registration plates of other cars could be clearly read despite it being taken on a wet night, as having been shot by the dash cams sold by Next Base. It considered that this impression was reinforced by the accompanying text that claimed the cameras could “capture and process superior image quality” and give “a clear view of your surroundings, even at night“. In fact, the image was a stock photo, which had not been taken by its dashcams. What’s more Next Base had superimposed legible number plates onto this stock photo. Although Next Base claimed that it had done this so that the vehicles depicted could not be identified, the ASA nevertheless considered it misleading because the image was not taken from a Next Base product. This was the first ground on which the ASA deemed the ad misleading.
The ASA then considered whether the image was representative of the images that the Next Base dashcams can capture. It compared the image to footage taken by Next Base dashcams. Again, the ASA found that the image was misleading in this regard. The ASA found that although some details, for example the content of road signs, were visible when travelling at lower speeds, when driving at around 30 miles per hour the cameras did not capture detail to the extent represented in the ad.
The ASA concluded that the “ad exaggerated the capability of the advertised products and was therefore misleading” and had breached CAP Code rules 3.1 (misleading advertising), 3.7 (substantiation) and 3.11 (exaggeration).
Why this matters
This ruling demonstrates the ASA’s continuing emphasis on the requirement for ads to be substantiated and not to mislead. This ruling shows a particular focus on the imagery used in ads to be representative, in quality and content, of the products advertised.
