M&S Christmas ad ‘misleading’

An M&S advert that claimed its Christmas dinner was ‘£10 cheaper’ than in 2016 has been ruled as ‘misleading’.

The retail giant also said it was ‘the only supermarket where Christmas dinner cost less than last year’.

But M&S replaced a fresh turkey with a frozen one and the Christmas cake submitted for a Good Housekeeping Institute survey was of lower quality than in 2016.

Watchdogs found the ad, published the week before Christmas, breached rules regarding ‘comparisons with identifiable competitors’ and ‘price comparisons’.

M&S said it ‘strongly believed’ that the products were comparable and, taken together with the details in the small print, they considered that the advert was not misleading.

But a spokesman for the Advertising Standards Authority said: ‘Although the qualification explained the differences, we considered it was not sufficient to override the overall impression of the ad.’