A life cover advert by ASDA has been found to have breached TV advertising standards rules by the Advertising Standards Authority.
The advert featured a woman talking about ASDA Over 50's Life Cover. She said "It costs from £5 a month. That's less than 17p a day. You can't buy this type of cover for less anywhere else".
She also said "... and because it's ASDA I can always make sure that I'd never pay more for cover than it'll pay out. So I'll never be out of pocket".
On-screen text stated "Capped premiums from £14.59. Unless you cap your premiums you must keep paying for life, and may pay more than you get out. If you stop paying early cover stops and you won't get anything back".
Complainants challenged whether the ad misleadingly implied that, based on the £5 monthly premium, customers would never pay in more than the policy paid out, whereas on-screen text stated that capped premiums were actually £14.59.
Although ASDA contested the ruling, the complaints were upheld in that it was misleading and unclear on pricing.
The ASA said in its statement: "The ASA understood that ASDA life insurance premiums had various premium payment options available to consumers and that any payments less than the capped minimum could result in consumers paying out more money that they eventually got back.
"We noted the on-screen text detailed the minimum capped payment and stated that unless payments were capped, consumers may end up paying in more than was eventually paid out.
"However, although the on-screen text appeared before and during the voice-over statement "... I can always make sure that I'd never pay more for cover than it'll pay out", we considered that most consumers would interpret the voice-over claim in context with the previous reference to the minimum £5 payment because it was presented as a continuous monologue.
"Furthermore, we considered that the claim "... and because it's ASDA I can always make sure that I'd never pay more for cover than it'll pay out" would be interpreted by most viewers as a statement that the woman was assured of this position because the insurance was offered by ASDA, and not because this was a feature of one of the payment options.
It added: "We concluded that the ad was misleading."
The ad will not be broadcast again in its current form.
