Toilet cleaner claim must be removed
THE promise that a single toilet cleaning block will deliver hundreds of perfumed flushes got a different odour after it was put to the test.
Ellen Fedele lodged a consumer complaint against Tiger Brands’ Jeyes toilet block packaging‚ which carried the claim “100s of flushes per block” in the top‚ right-hand corner.
She said the claim was false‚ because the block only lasts a few dozen flushes‚ far less than what is claimed.
The company acknowledged to the ASA that there were several consumer complaints about the longevity of the blocks – after which a laboratory study was conducted‚ “which determined that the claim as indicated on the pack was not misleading‚ provided that the block was inserted correctly”.
However‚ the placement of the toilet blocks in the cisterns‚ as well as the water pressure filling the cistern‚ impacted significantly on the longevity of the blocks‚ and could reduce the number of flushes dramatically‚ the company conceded.
Based on this‚ Tiger Brands said it would remove the claim from the pack and added that the current packaging should be depleted from the market by end of March 2017.
The ASA Directorate accepted the company’s undertaking but ordered it to do a month earlier – by February 2017.
“In practice‚ the ASA has always ruled that the main requirement is to stop disseminating offending packaging within this deadline.
“The ASA has traditionally accepted that some products sell through retail slower than others‚ and as such has permitted advertisers and marketers to let their product packaging ‘bleed out’‚ provided that no offending packaging is disseminated after the prescribed three-month period‚” it said.
The consequence of this is that Tiger Brands should no longer disseminate any of its current packaging subsequent to the end of February 2017.
“As no specific request was made to continue disseminating offending packaging after the prescribed threemonth period‚ the directorate sees no reason to extend this deadline.
“The undertaking to remove the claim ‘100’s of flushes per block’ is therefore accepted on condition that (the company) stops disseminating packaging carrying this claim by the end of February 2017.”
Tiger Brands told the ASA that it has already briefed its artwork supplier.