The ad, created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, for its saver account had one of the employees saying: "I was thinking 10% on our regular saver account, " followed by a voiceover saying: "10% on our regular saver account. Barclays -- now there's a thought."
The four complaints received said that the ad was misleading as it did not make it clear that the offer was limited to one year and that customer were required to switch their current account to Barclays.
Superimposed text did appear on screen at the same time as the voiceover stating these terms and conditions, however the Advertising Standards Authority were concerned that this was the only indication, even though the text was on screen for 18 seconds, rather than the required 14 and was of 20 lines in height not the minimum 16 lines.
Barclays argued that the offer was similar to other saver accounts currently available from their competitors, so consumers would be familiar with the likely terms and conditions.
The ad watchdog said: "We consider that, while other similar competitor offers had a limited term and required customers to open a current account, those conditions remained important and were likely to affect consumer interest in the offer."
The advertising watchdog ruled that the text gave the impression that the 10% was paid once a year and not for one year only.
It said that the conditions should have been more prominently displayed either by using larger text or detailing them in the voiceover, and that the ad should not be broadcast again in its current form.
Last July, the ASA received more than 100 complaints from people saying BBH's Barclays ad featuring a man getting stung by a bee and being shot by police when mistaken for a monster, belittled sufferers of anaphylactic shock. The ad carried the line: "You are more likely to get arrested than change your bank account."
BBH's campaign for KFC, featuring people singing with their mouths full, was cleared in May despite a record 1,671 complaints.
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