Bed brand Origin Mattress has been told to ensure future adverts are not misleading after being challenged by a rival.
A website for Origin Mattress, www.originmattress.co.uk, seen in August 2024, included a banner at the top that included text which stated, “Mega Summer Sale up to 45% off […] ending in […]” followed by a countdown clock showing the days, hours, minutes and seconds left of the sale.
Other webpages on the site also detailed sale notices as well as orthopaedic claims to offer enhanced health benefits.
Rival brand, Emma Sleep, challenged whether the use of the countdown clock misleadingly implied that the sales promotion was time limited, because the same promotion was still available under a new name shortly after the countdown ended.
Furthermore, the complaint challenged whether the reference prices and associated savings claims made for the “Mega Summer Sale” were misleading and could be substantiated, as well as the efficacy claims relating to the orthopaedic and health properties of Origin’s products were misleading and could be substantiated.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) reached out to Origin Sleep UK Ltd but the brand failed to respond.
The ASA said it was “concerned by Origin Sleep UK Ltd’s lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code”, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 (Unreasonable delay). “We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.”
Following an investigation into the complaint, the ASA upheld all three points and ruled: “The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Origin Sleep UK Ltd to ensure their ads did not mislead as to the closing date/time of promotions, or imply that discount offers were time-limited or would not be repeated if that was not the case.
“We also told them to ensure that future savings claims did not mislead, and to ensure they substantiated savings claims against the usual selling price of their products. We further told Origin to ensure they did not make claims about the orthopaedic and health properties of their products unless they could be fully substantiated. We referred the matter to CAP’s compliance team.”
