Wednesday 5 March 2008

Ryanair gets easyJet ad banned

An ad campaign by easyJet promising the lowest price flights has been banned by the advertising regulator after a complaint from rival low-cost airline Ryanair.
EasyJet ran a series of four internet banner ads and a press ad promoting a range of cheap summer fares.
Within the ads it said that consumers would receive a refund doubling the difference in price if they could find a better deal elsewhere.
However, in the terms and conditions easyJet stipulated that a range of restrictions applied to its cheapest price offer.
These included the stipulation that comparisons could only be made with fares from rivals with flights from the same departure and destination airport within an hour of easyJet's own scheduled services.
Ryanair lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority objecting that there were too many restrictions around easyJet's cheapest fare offer for customers to be able to find comparable flights with competitors.
The rival airline said that the hefty level of restrictions meant that the ads were therefore misleading.
In its ruling the ASA said that the ads implied that the "double the difference" refund offer was easy to obtain when it in reality "very restricting terms and conditions suggested it was not".
The ASA ruled that the ads should not be shown again.
Ryanair has had a tempestuous relationship with the advertising watchdog when decisions have gone against it - such as over the recent Britney ad - but seems to have no qualms using the system to attack rival's ad campaigns.
The ASA recently upheld another complaint made by Ryanair over an ad campaign run by rival Jet2.com.

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