Misleading smart meter advert banned
AN ADVERT for smart meters featuring Maxine Peake, the actress, has been banned for misleading customers about potential savings.
Smart Energy GB, the national campaign for the rollout of smart meters, claimed in a radio advert last July that it could save users an average of 354 kilowatt hours.
But the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned it after receiving 14 complaints because it did not make clear that the saving depended on users monitoring their energy and making changes to consumption.
Peake, star of Dinnerladies, says in the advert: “We use so much energy every day, it is exhausting. And expensive. But with a smart meter you get an expected average saving of 354 kilowatt hours. That might not mean much but if we all got one, we could save the same amount of energy as it takes to power Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle for a year.”
Smart Energy GB said its calculations were based on two reports from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. It argued that the qualification at the end of the advert – “savings possible by customers measuring energy use and cutting waste” – made it clear that energy savings after installation of a smart meter were the result of customer action rather than using the meter by itself.
However, the ASA ruled that because this was separated from the main claim it did not provide “sufficient clarification to override listeners’ overall interpretation of the ad”. It found Smart Energy GB breached “misleading advertising” and “substantiation” rules.
The ASA did not uphold a complaint about the same claim in a second advert because it was immediately followed by a qualification.
It also did not uphold complaints about the claim about [everyone using a smart meter] powering Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle for a year.
Maxine Peake, who has come a long way since her much-loved role as Twinkle in Dinnerladies, has been banned from the radio by the Advertising Standards Authority. She has not been banned for her acting, which is widely admired, or for her political views (“For me, Jeremy Corbyn is our only beacon of hope”), but because the words of the advertisement she voiced were misleading. “Crikey,” she exclaimed in it, “we use so much energy every day it is exhausting – and expensive.” So it is, but the advertising watchdog judged it wrong “to suggest that the installation of a smart meter would in itself result in a reduction of household energy consumption”. Bills would still go down if you sat in the dark with the heating off. So, unless the advertisement is reworded, it’s the off switch for Maxine Peake.