TJC Complaint Upheld by ASA

A Shopping Telly presentation for a ‘2-in-1 Car Air Purifier with USB Car Charger’, seen on 8 January 2021. During the course of the presentation, the presenter stated: “… it removes particles like dust from your car, like smoke in the air, but also of course bacteria, viruses, germs and all of those nasties”; “… but it’s great for those who have to give someone a lift every day and you’re worried about viruses and germs in the air. Plug it in and it’s going to be purifying the air in your car”; “…I think every car in the whole world should have an air purifier now, and every home should have an air purifier to get rid of viruses and bacteria in the air you are in”; “If you’re an Uber driver or a taxi driver you should definitely get one of these, definitely if you’re ever in the car for long periods, you should get one of these so that whenever you get in your car at least you know that your environment is purified. If you ever have to take a lift with someone you might want to have one in your pocket so if you ever have to get in someone’s car you can say ‘Would you mind so much if I just plug this in while I’m in the car with you to purify the air, this will protect both of us’, it’s worth it”; “If you’re having a lift with someone – the whole sort of virus thing – no one can help that, well unless they’re doing … as much as they can, but you could plug that in and of course that’s going to purify the air in the car”; “…if you’re taking kids to school every day, you know, the minute they get in the car at the end of school they’ve been mixing with all those other kids, to protect them and yourself, to protect yourself purify the air when you’re taking them in the car on the way home”; “… but now with viruses and stuff and confined spaces you should definitely get one for your car”; and “… think of elderly relatives … if you’ve got to pick up kids and stuff from school in the car, put this in, because when they’ve been in school they’ve been socialising with all their other friends, they could’ve picked up the virus or whatever it might be, at least have this on in the car to protect yourself as much as you can”.

Issue

The complainant challenged whether claims that the product could protect against COVID-19 by removing it from the air were misleading and could be substantiated.

Response

Shop TJC Ltd said that the content did not mention COVID-19 and did not claim that the product would remove COVID-19 particles from the air, as the product had not been specifically tested for that. They said that to build an understanding of the product before broadcast, the production team compiled information about it from other websites, and found information as described in the presentation. They provided the articles which provided the basis of that information. Shop TJC said they would be reviewing and amending that process.

Assessment

Upheld

The presentation was seen in the context of a nationwide lockdown to address a rising number of COVID-19 infections. Therefore, although the ad did not mention COVID-19 explicitly, in that context we considered the ad’s references to an air purifier which could protect against a “virus” would be understood as references to COVID-19. We considered consumers would understand from the ad that the product was effective at removing COVID-19 particles from the air, and that it could therefore protect users from infection.

The articles provided by Shop TJC related to the effect that air purifiers in general had on COVID-19 and did not relate to testing on the effect of the specific product presented. Therefore, we had not been provided with evidence to support the presentation’s claims that the air purifier product was effective at removing COVID-19 particles from the air.

For those reasons we concluded the presentation was misleading and therefore breached the Code.

The ad breached BCAP Code Rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 3.9 (Substantiation) and 3.12 (Exaggeration).

Action

The presentation must not be broadcast again in the form complained about. We told Shop TJC Ltd not to state or imply that the air purifier was effective at removing COVID-19 particles from the air and protecting users from infection, without adequate evidence.

BCAP Code

3.1 3.12 3.9

Entrepreneur hopes 'Big Find' TV show spot boosts plastic organiser's success

Sharon Lynn, or, more accurately, the clear plastic organizer she has developed, is ready for a close-up.

Lynn and her Glam Roll-Ups organizer recently made their debut on the QVC and HSN shopping channels. Lynn has been hawking her product with modest success for several years at kiosks in Connecticut shopping malls, but the Fairfield County native got her big break through The Big Find product search conducted by the shopping channels.

“I am beyond thrilled to be here,” Lynn said during her five-minute appearance on the television network via Skype. “It is a major honor. I am humbled beyond belief.”

The product search was launched in 2019 as a way “to discover entrepreneurs with the next big brand or unique product for an extraordinary opportunity to share their stories with an audience of millions,” according to a company spokeswoman. Since the arrival of COVID-19, the product pitches have been done via videoconferencing and received record-breaking interest, with more than 2,400 applications from more than 60 countries in 2020 alone.

Over the last two years, more than 160 brands have been chosen to launch on QVC or HSN through The Big Find. The Glam Roll-Up is one of more than 90 Big Find brands launching throughout 2021 as a result of the 2020 product search.

After a brand launches and appears on-air, the item remains available on the QVC e-commerce site for as long as supplies last, the spokeswoman said. Lynn would not say how many of the organizers the channel bought.

“Let’s just say they bought a lot,” she said. During the product’s debut on QVC, host Jen Coffey told viewers that the channel had purchased 1,350 of the Glam Roll-Ups in three different sizes.

The product retails for $39.98. After a brand launches, QVC’s merchandising teams evaluate and determine upcoming appearances.

Lynn’s efforts to bring the Glam Roll-Ups to market date back five years, three years after she moved to Milford to take care of her mother, Bonnie, who was ill with lung cancer. Lynn’s mother died in 2014.

“I love lipstick, love nail polish, I’ve been a beauty girl my entire life,” she said. In an effort to organize her makeup in her small apartment in Miford’s Devon section, Lynn came up with the Glam Roll-Up.

Being and entrepreneur seems to come naturally to the 50-year-old Lynn, who launched a beauty advisory business in the 1990s. She is a licensed cosmetologist.

“For a business to be successful, you have to be able to scale it up,” she said. “But with that kind of business, you can’t do that because it’s just you and you alone.”

Since then, she has worked a number of jobs. She worked for Beauty Plus Supply, a beauty products company, for six years. During that time she developed the Glam-Roll Up and the owners of the business allowed her to sell it in their stores.

Later she began selling the product in kiosks at the Danbury Fair mall and the Connecticut Post Mall in her spare time. But Lynn said the kiosk rents were too high for her to make her business profitable.

“I’ve been selling them, but not on a grand scale,” she said. “It has really been a part-time business.”

The impetus to make the organizer more of a full-time business came at the start of the pandemic, when Lynn lost her job working at Nordstrom. She found out earlier this year that she and her product had been selected to appear on QVC US.

Retail consultant Burt Flickinger, managing director of New York City-based Strategic Resource Group, said being selected to appear on QVC is “a tremendous honor and achievement for an entrepreneur.”

“They arguably have the best depth of marketing and merchandising data anywhere,” Flickinger said of the shopping channel. “QVC will have at any given time hundreds of thousands of shoppers watching what they are selling and they can tell to the second what images, what product positioning is going to be most effective in selling a product. It’s the most efficient way to maximize the sale of a product.”

An appearance on they shopping channel can be “the beginning of a very viable and very good business,” he said.

The Glam Roll-Ups are manufactured overseas. Lynn said she would have preferred to have them made in the United States, but doing so would have made the product considerably more expensive.

“When I started investigating how much it would cost to do it here in the United States, producing the Roll-Up would have made it cost $70,” she said. “Some people don’t have that kind of money to spend.”

While Lynn waits to see how much of a boost the QVC appearance will mean to her product, “I’ve got other ideas in the hopper,” she said.

“Different trims, different designs, bigger sizes,” Lynn said when asked what’s next for her product.

Source: The Register Citizen

The Craft Store welcomes Richard Orford as a Presenter

If you’re watching The Craft Store next week you may notice a familiar face as they introduce Richard Orford as a new presenter. You may recognise him from ‘Find a Fortune’ (ITV1), ‘This Morning’ (ITV1), ‘The Live Six Show’ (Sky One), ‘Holiday on a Shoestring’ (BBC1) and ‘The Disney Club’ (ITV1). He also hosted two series of the ground-breaking gameshow ‘Defector’s on Challenge but he’s perhaps best known for his 3 years on Channel 4’s iconic and award-winning ‘The Big Breakfast’.

Richard speaks about his new venture: “...Totally new to crafting and eager to learn all about it. I think crafters are so clever and artistic and I’m in total awe of their creative skills. I’m really excited to join The Craft Store as it’s such a lovely, relaxed place filled with really nice people. Like one giant family… with added stamps, dies and foiling sheets!”

Richard Orford has worked non-stop in the British television industry for a quarter of a century as an extraordinarily versatile performer - specialising in humour, getting the best out of people onscreen and conveying subjects in a fun an populist way that viewers can relate and engage with.

He will be joining The Craft Store from Monday 23rd of August so keep an eye on your screens or follow their TV Schedule here: https://thecraftstore.com/tv-schedule

Source: https://richardorford.com/#band-section