Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer
The summer holidays are approaching – the time of year when the hum of last minute offers starts buzzing about your ears. Recently the Advertising Code Commission (ACC) (and in the Board of Appeal (BoA) made a ruling on a TV commercial from Sunweb: a couple in love ride on a scooter along a beautiful coastline. The person who filed the complaint found the commercial misleading: the commercial was recommending a holiday in the Algarve, but showed the coastline along the West Cape in South Africa. Sunweb explained that the imagery was meant to put consumers in a certain (holiday) frame of mind (and thus, not to recommend a specific destination). However, the ACC found the advertisement misleading. Consumers could potentially think that the beautiful landscape shown was in the Algarve, partly because the commercial contained the text “The Algarve is 2342 kilometres from the De Hogt interchange”.
Before the BoA, Sunweb argues that the images are vague, so the location cannot clearly be identified. Furthermore, the same images are also used for recommending other holiday destinations, while the Algarve landscape does not really differ from the images shown. This is to no avail: the BoA holds that the consumer can confuse the images of the landscape with the Algarve. The the landscape in the commercial may be shown somewhat vaguely, but it is still clear enough for the locality to be identified. Sunweb has failed to substantiate the similarities between the Algarve and South Africa. The key question here is: can consumers truly decide to book a holiday simply by seeing a TV commercial or do they seek out more information about their potential holiday destination first? My guess would be the latter. Furthermore, a TV commercial comes and goes rather quickly and a healthy dose of exaggeration in an advertisement is nothing unusual. This decision shows that holidays are progressively becoming impulse buys thanks to the arrival of the price-slashing era. You no longer have to break the bank to fly to coolest destinations in Europe “with that gorgeous coastline from the commercial”.
Already excited for a holiday?
Sarah Arayess