ASA rules Shoprite ad not racist
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled that a Shoprite TV commercial was not ‘racism at its best’. A TimesLIVE report says in the commercial, a black girl talks about her future career choice in front of her class. ‘When I grow up‚ I want to help people save money. I want to work at Shoprite like my mommy,’ she announces.
Charles Ngobeni complained that the commercial created the impression that it was ‘desirable for a black girl to work for the respondent’. He said he feared the commercial would make black children dream about getting a low-paying job at Shoprite that did not require a tertiary education.
‘He argued that the respondent should use a white child and a white mother as he sees this commercial as "racism at its best",’ the ASA said. Shoprite is not an ASA member‚ but decided to respond to the complaint it called ‘frivolous and vexatious’.
However, the ASA said the complaint was important, because particularly black children should for historical reasons be encouraged to get a tertiary education. It added that a child’s dream of working at Shoprite was ‘not indicative that she will not have a tertiary education and a better future’.
In another ruling, the ASA ordered The Gadget Shop to withdraw a misleading e-mail advertisement regarding a 30% off promotion on ‘everything for a limited time only.’ According to another TimesLIVE report, the complainant argued not everything was marked down and a disclaimer that it excluded certain items only appeared on the third page. The Gadget Shop argued all the marketing and promotional items were on one page. The ASA ruled a reasonable person would be misled by the e-mail advertisement. ‘Its first appearance is at the beginning of the e-mail. It reads “Get 30% off everything for a limited time only”. There is no asterisk‚ and there is no disclaimer‚’ the ASA ruled. ‘Below this is a long e-mail‚ which a consumer would need to scroll down‚ setting out the various products on offer‚ with links to “shop now”. Only at the very end does the claim appear again‚ asterisked and disclaimed.’ The ASA added the word ‘everything’ was not open to interpretation.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
