Tesco has hit back at Asda in the supermarkets’ long-running tussle over price-based advertising.

A complaint by the UK’s largest supermarket over a national press advert has been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority.

It ruled that an advert headlined ‘The big Asda Rollback’ – claiming “over 930 prices lowered on grocery essentials” and “lower prices on everything you buy, week in week out” – was misleading.

Tesco argued it was unclear whether Asda was comparing the prices with its own previous prices or those of rivals.

The advert was published on 14 January but Tesco said that its own price checks that week showed Asda had not lowered 930 prices compared with the previous week.

Asda showed it had made the reductions over a three-week period but the ASA found the advert could be taken to mean the cuts were made over just a single week.

The watchdog ordered Asda to ensure that future ads spelled out the period over which price comparisons were made and to avoid implying that a large number of reductions had been made in the preceding week if that was not the case.

The ruling comes after the ASA last week upheld a complaint by Asda relating to a Tesco advert comparing the cost of ‘real baskets’.

It banned the ad on the basis that Tesco had not provided its rival with the full set of data on which the comparison was based.

Read more
Daily Bread: Hanging baskets (15 September 2010)
Asda complaint prompts ban on Tesco basket ad (15 September 2010)

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