FIRST AD BROADCAST ON U105 RULED TO BE MISLEADING AND IN BREACH OF ASA CODE

The first commercial to be broadcast on new Belfast radio station U105 has been ruled to have been misleading and in breach of the Radio Advertising Code by industry watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

The commercial, by local ad agency A.V. Browne, claimed that AV Browne was "Northern Ireland's most effective advertising agency"; a claim ruled to be misleading and in breach of the Code by the ASA in an adjudication published today, Wednesday 22 nd February, following a complaint by leading award winners Lyle Bailie International Limited.

David Lyle, Chief Executive of LyleBailie said:

"We submitted clear evidence to both U105 and the ASA proving that LyleBailie had won many more Effectiveness Awards for our case studies than AV Browne at a combined local, national and international level - in fact the current score is 26 by LyleBailie to 11 AV Browne. What concerns me is that AV Browne tried to use misleading substantiation to support a misleading claim - relying selectively on the smaller pool of IPA Effectiveness Awards and ignoring the fact that on a global level LyleBailie has won 63% of all the Effectiveness Awards in the public domain won by Northern Ireland advertising agencies" .

Julie Anne Bailie, Executive Creative Director at LyleBailie said:

"This is not just a question of quantity - it is a question of substance . The gravitas of LyleBailie's Effectiveness Awards is clear - for instance how an £8.68 million investment in advertising helped save 2774 people from death or serious injury on the roads, contributing to a £704.35 million economic saving for government - and LyleBailie's scale spanning a Gold WorldMedal and a Grand Prix.

David Lyle added:

"I trust that AV Browne and U105 will now acknowledge and apologise publicly for their breaches of the Radio Advertising Code."