Tullo Marshall Warren created a direct mailing in the form of a leaflet and door-drop, all of which featured the Lloyds TSB Insurance logo and the campaign strapline "Chosen by your neighbours".
The strapline was used because Lloyds claims to be the UK's number one home insurance provider and therefore, the company most likely to be insuring the recipients' neighbours.
The materials used touches such as the envelope bearing a fictitious typewritten name and address, which was scribbled out and replaced with the correct recipient's address printed in a handwritten-style font. The "neighbour" had also written on the envelope "My home's covered already. I thought you might be interested".
The leaflet also took the form of a folded handwritten note with the text "Neighbour" on the outside; inside text read "Hello, I thought I'd do the neighbourly thing and recommend a great deal on home insurance with Lloyds TSB home insurance".
Five people complained to the Advertising Standards Authority that the materials were misleading because they had been presented in a way that implied they were genuine referrals from neighbours.
The ASA agreed and upheld the complaints, ordering Lloyds not to distribute the materials again. It acknowledged that most people were likely to realise the mailing contained advertising material but said it was not sufficiently clear that the leaflet and the door-drop were advertising material, and that the use of handwritten style text was misleading.
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