Advertising

Complaint against Aldi for misleading ham advertisement

By Áine Hennessy on 20 April 2016

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The complainant considered the advertising to be misleading.

Aldi advertised the weight of a mini Serrano ham as 1.5kg, however the actual weight specified on the box was 0.950kg. The complaint was upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland.

The Aldi Specialbuys advertisement featured a picture of the ham on a wooden block with a knife lying alongside. The offer read: “A slice of heaven – Mini Jámon Serrano €19.99 1.5kg.”

The complainant said that while the weight of the ham had been advertised as 1.5kg, the actual weight specified on the box label was 0.950kg. The complainant therefore considered the advertising to be misleading.

Aldi said that they conducted a thorough investigation of the matter, and while the weight of the Aldi ham product had been correctly displayed in store and on the packaging of the product itself, they had inadvertently included the incorrect weight on their website. The supermarket said that the error occurred as a result of including the weight of the wooden block in the overall weight of the product.

As they did not sell their products online, they considered that there had never been any possibility that a customer could have purchased the product believing that the product weighed 1.5kg.

Complaint upheld

The Complaints Committee considered the details of the complaint and the advertisers’ response. They noted that a genuine error had occurred in relation to the weight of the product advertised on the company’s website, nevertheless, the product description was incorrect and the Committee considered the advertisement was in breach of Section 2.24 of the Code. Aldi was reminded of the need for care when describing products.