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The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has warned the Daily

Express to make its paid-for promotions clearer, following four

complaints against a push for the Royal Mail that ran in October

2001.

The campaign gave consumers the chance to win a £1million stamp

when they bought a book of 12 first class stamps. Those who complained

stated that the front page flash - "Win £1million in time for

Christmas, amazing first class giveaway, full details page 3" -

insinuated that the promotion was being run by the newspaper. Given that

the Royal Mail was behind the push, the flash was, therefore, an

advertisement.

According to the newspaper group the content of the front-page flash was

editorial, not a sales promotion, because it related to editorial

content. The Express has assured the ASA that in future it will not

publish editorial flashes that could be reasonably mistaken as

advertising promotions.

An ASA spokesperson said that newspaper promotions are often picked up

on because of the high profile nature they have with the consumer, but

that it was the paper's duty to clearly differentiate between a

promotion and editorial.

The Express was also pulled up for a travel promotion offering readers

£98 return flights all over the US for every reader. ASA

considered that the phrase "for every reader" was misleading and

exaggerated the number of flights available. It also felt that the

footnote - "fares will be on sale from 9am Saturday 10 November 2001.

All fares to be booked and paid for by 10pm Sunday 11 November 2001" -

contradicted the headline claim.

The ASA concluded that the front page flash was again misleading, and

told advertisers not to use the claim "for every reader" unless

sufficient promotional items were available for redemption.