The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned an advert for CrossCountry Trains which said that first class passengers using its service would be given free food and drink during their journey.
The complaint was made by two people who frequently travelled on the railway’s first class service but did not receive any complimentary catering.
The ASA determined that the ad was misleading as it did not highlight that the first class perk was only available on less than 80% of its services. It banned the ad and told CrossCountry Trains not to use the claim “complimentary food and drink” in communications unless it held adequate evidence to substantiate the offer.
In its defence, CrossCountry Trains said that the period leading up to the complainants seeing the ad was marked by exceptional disruption to its normal operations due to industrial operations and other factors which had impacted resourcing.
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After looking at information provided by CrossCountry Trains, the ASA found that only 73% of the rail firm’s Monday to Friday Voyager services were scheduled to operate with catering, with 70% on Saturdays and 78% on Sundays.
Due to the fact that the service claimed catering was available between 6am and 8pm but did not detail the times of each service, the ASA found that it was impossible to determine whether the services were scheduled to operate with partial or no catering.
Nevertheless, it held that because of the scheduled rate of between 70% and 78% catering, the overall impression created by the claim of “complimentary food and drink” was unsubstantiated.
It breached CAP Code rules about misleading advertising (3.1), substantiation (3.7) and qualification (3.9).
It’s not the only time train firms have faced a run-in with the ASA recently, with Eurostar coming under fire for flash sale marketing techniques back in January.
