Trainline.com ads banned for exaggerating online savings

Trainline.com ads banned for exaggerating online savings

Watchdog censures ticketing firm Trainline.com's TV adverts portraying rail users who buy tickets at stations as sheep.

Link to this video A high-profile TV advertising campaign by the ticketing firm Trainline.com, promising big discounts and portraying rail users who buy tickets at train stations as sheep, has been banned by the advertising watchdog for exaggerating the amount that can be saved online. The TV and poster campaign, developed by ad agency Delaney Lund Knox Warren, featured sheep queueing for tickets at a train station. A voiceover asked why commuters were still "paying full price" by buying tickets at the station. It said that on average 39% could be saved by buying tickets in advance at the firm's website, thetrainline.com. The Advertising Standards Authority received 27 complaints that the ads were misleading. Complainants said that the ads were misleading because they exaggerated the savings that could be made, implied that cheap advance tickets could only be bought on the thetrainline.com website, and suggested that special advance tickets for some journeys could not be bought online. Trainline.com admitted that same-price tickets could be bought from railway stations and other outlets, but said that the aim of the ad was to publicise the savings that could be made buying in advance. The company also said that advance tickets were available "for the vast majority of the most popular routes". The ASA dismissed the complaints that the ad implied that thetrainline.com was the only place to buy advance tickets. However, the watchdog banned the TV ad because the basis of the claim of 39% savings online, as opposed to buying on the day of travel at a station, was not included in the commercial. The ASA also upheld complaints that the TV and poster ads were misleading because there were a number of rail routes on which savings were not available. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".