The advertising watchdog has banned an advert for Asda’s recent half-price toy sale following a complaint by Sainsbury’s.

The advert showed a range of toys next to a banner that stated ‘1/2 Price Toys’ while a voiceover said: “The only serious thing in Asda’s Toy Event are the prices! Everything is at least half price!”

Sainsbury’s and a member of the public argued the advert was misleading as the promotion only applied to selected items.

Asda said that the promotion involved “a limited but reasonable number of toys” and that it did not believe the average consumer would think the Toy Event applied to every toy in their stores. The supermarket also demonstrated that all 17 products featured in the advert were included in the sale.

However, the ASA agreed with Sainsbury’s that viewers would assume all toys were covered by the promotion. It has banned Asda from running the advert again.

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