The J Partnership, a Hertfordshire-based direct marketing agency, has been referred after the Advertising Standards Authority said it had breached an agreement to clear copy with its copy advice team. The complaint has been made to the OFT over work done for the Swiss chocolate company GMS Trading, which trades under the name Sweet & Tasty.
A mailing for Sweet & Tasty was criticised in December 2001 because the terms and conditions for a prize draw were printed on the inside of the envelope in which they were sent, rather than in the pack's contents. There was also a dispute over the wording of the mailout.
After further complaints over Sweet & Tasty mailings, the ASA received a signed assurance from the J Partnership, stating that it would ensure that future mailings had been checked with the copy advice team before distribution.
Sanctions were invoked against GMS Trading in December 2002, which resulted in the company losing its Royal Mail business mailsort discount.
However, the ASA said it has become aware that the company had carried out further mailings, via Deutsche Post, not checked with the copy advice team. These mailings carried the J Partnership's PO Box response address, leading to claims that J Partnership is in breach of its earlier assurance.
J Partnership does data capture on Sweet & Tasty's orders and prize entry draws. Managing director Anna-Lisa Johnson confirmed that the agency had signed the assurance and said she believed that all campaigns from February onwards had been checked and cleared with the copy advice team.
She said: "I know that people win the prize draws, and I know that people get the products they order from Sweet & Tasty. If it wasn't a good company we wouldn't work for it."
Christopher Graham, director general of the ASA, said: "Like advertisers, all marketing agencies have a responsibility to comply with the British Codes of Advertising Sales Promotion so that consumers are not misled. If, as with the J Partnership, it is clear that an agency or marketing consultancy is failing in that responsibility, then the ASA will take action."
The agency could face legal action under the Control of Misleading Advertisements Regulations of 1988.
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