Pick n Pay has been found guilty of misleading advertising and instructed to clarify its promotional copy in future thanks to a poorly clarified red wine special.
The finding comes in the wake of a formal complaint by consumer Lerato Masetlwa, who tried to take up a special in which customers were offered two bottles of Kanonkop Kadette red wine for R200.
The promo appeared in a catalogue advertising various specials, with the Kanonkop deal prompting Masetlwa to head out to the Pick n Pay Hyper store in Maponya Mall, Soweto, to pick up the deal — only to be told that the special offer advertised was not available at the store.
When she was refused the special, Masetlwa laid a formal complaint with the Advertising Regulatory Board, asking for the matter to be investigated. A member of the ARB then visited Pick n Pay Maponya Mall and photographed the outside of the store which clearly identifies it as “Pick n Pay Hyper”.
When asked for their response to Masetlwa’s gripe, Pick n Pay said that the Soweto store had recently been rebranded as a QualiSave store — different from the normal stores — and therefore offered different specials.
The brand stated that QualiSave has its own website and QualiSave Liquor, where the Kanonkop Kadette deal did not feature in their advertising catalogue.
The complainant cannot be faulted for expecting the advertised deals to be available at the store in Maponya Mall.
— Advertising Regulatory Board
When asked about the “Hyper” sign outside the store, Pick n Pay said that “hyper” was used to identify larger stores carrying larger product offerings, and the Maponya store was therefore a QualiSave Hyper.
Viewing the matter in line with the application of the Code of Advertising Practice, the advertising regulator noted that though the special had ended by the time the complaint was investigated, it would still be judged for a ruling to be issued for guidance in future similar matters.
Masetlwa complained that the catalogue advert noted that the promotion was available at “Pick n Pay supermarkets and selected hypermarkets” with no other disclaimer relating to stores to which the offer did not apply.
The ARB noted that “Pick n Pay is one of the most well-known and long-standing retailers in South Africa”, while the QualiSave branding was new and “not well established in the consumer’s mind”.
A news article announcing the rebranding was run with a photograph showing the new front signage of a QualiSave store in which the name was extremely clear and noticeable — unlike the barely noticeable rebranding at the Maponya Mall store. The ARB noted that they only became aware of the QualiSave brand as a result of Masetlwa’s complaint.
“The complainant cannot be faulted for expecting the advertised deals to be available at the store in Maponya Mall,” the ARB stated, finding that the advertising promotion failed on two levels.
“It is unclear from the advertisement that the special is not available at QualiSave stores; it is unclear from the signage that the Maponya Mall store is actually now a QualiSave store,” the board said, adding the advert could also have made it clear that the offer applied to “normal” and not QualiSave stores.
“In light of the surrounding circumstances, the directorate is of the view that the catalogue that is the subject of this complaint was misleading by omitting to state that the advertised deals were not available at QualiSave stores.
“While such a disclaimer would not cure the lack of clear signage at the store in Maponya Mall, its presence in the catalogues for ‘normal’ Pick n Pay Supermarkets and/or Hypermarkets in future should at least alert consumers to the fact that there are separate QualiSave stores where the advertised deals are not available.”
Pick n Pay was instructed to take the decision into account in preparing all future advertising.
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