Advertising Regulatory Board finds Ted Baker's sale advert misleading

• The Advertising Regulatory Board found one of Ted Baker's adverts to be misleading after it promised customers 70% off all sale items but failed to deliver.
• One complainant was under the impression a further 70% would be discounted from the marked-down price, but that was not the case.  
• The item initially cost R4 500 and was marked down to R1 620, which is also not a 70% discount as promised by the store, but a 64% price reduction.
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British clothing brand Ted Baker found itself on the wrong side of South Africa's ad watchdog after advertising customers will get 70% off all sale items, but some price reductions were less than 70% and therefore found to be misleading.

One disgruntled customer took to the Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) after being told he could not get an additional 70% off an item that was already on sale, as Ted Baker stipulated.

He would then have to buy the item for a discount price that was less than 70% promised by the retailer.

A signage in one of the stores said "70% off all sale items", which led customers to think they would have an additional reduced price.

According to the complainant, the garment he was interested in buying, which initially cost R4 500, was discounted to R1 620.

However, the sales representative told the customer the ad meant garments would be reduced by 70% compared to their original retail price, meaning R1 620 was the discounted price.

The complainant then argued since the garment has a sale price of R1 620 from the original price of R4 500, the expected sale price would then have to be R1 350 when a 70% reduction is applied.

The sale price of R1 620 then means only a 64% discount was applied as opposed to the 70% that was promised.

Despite being given an opportunity to justify the case, Ted Baker representatives in South Africa chose not to respond.

ARB decision

Although the ARB initially thought it was unreasonable for customers to expect an additional 70% off the sale price, it later reconsidered after closely looking at the prices.

"As correctly noted by the complainant, a 70% discount on R4 500 would mean a price of R1 350.

"Had the price been marked down by 70%, then the reasonable conclusion would be that the 70% discount had already been applied. But this was not the case.

It said: 

According to the ARB, this created ambiguity since 70% was not deducted from the original price and the poster did not include a disclaimer that said, "up to 70%".

Including an asterisk or any special conditions would have made the advert a lot clearer and therefore manage customers' expectations.

"Had the poster read, for instance, '70% discount on selected items', or 'selected items on sale at 70% discount', or 'discounts up to 70%', one might have drawn a different conclusion.

"This is not, however, the case, and the advertised discount specifically states that ALL sale items will have a 70% deduction. The item in question is clearly a sale item."

The ARB said it believed the ad led customers to draw two conclusions: the item in question would have an additional deduction that would bring the total discount down to 70%, and the discount of 70% would be applied to the already marked-down price.