'Misleading' British Gas adverts banned by watchdog

Adverts for British Gas's home maintenance service are "misleading" and should be banned from further broadcast, a regulator said today.

The TV and radio commercials stated that "HomeCare is there for you 365 days a year" and "there's no telling when your heating or hot water may go and when you might need an engineer".

But the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) ruled customers might not get a visit from an engineer at weekends or public holidays because of reduced staff numbers at British Gas.

In upholding the first part of the complaint, the ASA said: "We concluded that, without qualification to make clear that a skeleton service operated at weekends and on public holidays, the claim 'HomeCare is there for you 365 days a year' could mislead."

In response to the eight complaints received, British Gas claimed it operated a telephone service that was always operational.

But the ASA investigation reported: "Neither ad mentioned the HomeCare helpline and (the ASA) considered that viewers and listeners were therefore unlikely to attribute the claim 'HomeCare is there for you 365 days a year' to the helpline service."

The second part of the complaint dealt with a radio advert which said in its voice-over that British Gas would be there for you when you need an engineer "on your birthday, Christmas Day, the coldest day".

The ASA said: "We understood that British Gas could not guarantee that their engineers would attend a call out on the same day. Because the ads implied that they would, we considered that they were misleading."

However, the third part of the complaint, that the TV commercial failed to make clear the geographical restrictions of the service, was not upheld.

The regulator found it would have been impractical to list all the limitations of the HomeCare products.

The ASA ruled that the ads, created with agency CHI & Partners, should not be broadcast again in their current form.

Scott Boose, managing director of central heating care at British Gas, said the firm would be appealing against the ruling.

He said: "Our HomeCare breakdown service provides peace of mind to nearly five million customers in the UK.

"Last year British Gas engineers made half a million visits to central heating breakdowns on Saturdays and Sundays alone. On Christmas Day and Boxing Day we attended nearly 6,000 heating breakdowns.

"In 2008 our engineers visited over 70% of customers within 24 hours of their telephone call reporting a breakdown.

"We are disappointed by the ASA's decision and will be appealing against the ruling."