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Larger-than-life sofa advert banned
SRI CARMICHAEL CONSUMER AFFAIRS REPORTER JOB TITLE/ LOCATION03.12.08
A furniture company has been criticised by advertising watchdogs for making their sofas look bigger than they are.
DFS has been banned from broadcasting their latest advert for misleading viewers because footage of the actors singing was superimposed onto shots of sofas. The Advertising Standards Authority stopped the commercials after receiving complaints from viewers.
The three adverts were accompanied by the song Rockstar, which is performed by Canadian group Nickleback. DFS hired actors to mime and dance to the song while in front of or sitting on sofas.
Then the producers merged the film of the singers with film showing the sofas. But 21 viewers complained the adverts exaggerated the size of the sofas. The ASA agreed. The watchdog said it realised the firm had taken care to make sure the sofas were correctly sized and that the actors were shown in proportion.
But it said: "We considered that the production technique used meant some of the sofas did appear large in relation to the actors. We concluded that the ad was misleading." DFS said it had not meant to exaggerate the size of the furniture.It had received no customer complaints.
