Sanral threatens to disregard ASA ruling
Claims authority is being ‘unfair’
THE SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) has threatened to disregard the rulings of the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA).
Vusi Mona, the general manager for communications at Sanral, said yesterday that the agency had always adhered to ASA rulings, “but will in future have to question these and possibly disregard them as the agency is not bound in law to adhere to them”.
“ASA is a self-regulatory body and has no absolute jurisdiction over the roads agency,” he said.
This follows ASA ordering Sanral on Friday to withdraw a radio commercial with immediate effect because it was misleading and not use the commercial in the current form again in the future.
Sanral voiced its disagreement with the ASA ruling earlier this week and claimed the complaint “may have served only to draw ASA in as an unwitting participant in their campaign”.
Anti e-toll
Mona said there appeared to be an organised and co-ordinated campaign against Sanral because it had received several queries that focused only on the e-toll adverts and none on their other advertising campaigns.
Continuing the criticism of the ASA ruling, Mona said yesterday that it was difficult to decide whether “unfair” or “being used by the anti e-toll brigade” best described ASA’s handling of Sanral’s advertising.
Mona said ASA had threatened Sanral this week with strict sanctions if it did not immediately withdraw an advert on the new e-toll dispensation, but this advert had not been flighted beyond last month.
“What is there to withdraw? Anti etoll is the best description,” he said.
Mona claimed “unfair” was also an appropriate description for an earlier ruling by ASA on an advert regarding the number of registered e-tags.
He said ASA queried the registered e-tag figures last year after receiving a complaint and Sanral had the numbers reviewed by an outside company, which confirmed the figures.
Mona said this was brought to the attention of ASA, but as yet it had not taken the audit firm’s findings into account and rescinded its ruling.
“It is interesting that ASA only reacts to e-toll ads and shows no interest in the rest of the expanded advertising campaign. Is it now unwittingly part of the campaign against e-tolls?” he asked.
The advertisement which led to ASA issuing its most recent ruling stated: “Government has listened to you and responded by giving you a new e-toll dispensation. Among other things, we’ve reduced the rate to 30 cents per kilometre for light motor vehicles and slashed the monthly cap by 50 percent. If you have outstanding etoll fees dating back to December 2013, you will receive a 60 percent discount and six months to pay. We thank all who have paid their dues. You have helped in moving South Africa forward.”
ASA said in its ruling that the language used suggested the changes had already been implemented and people could receive the relevant discount, but no mention was made of the fact that these proposals were “actually still in the making and not effective yet”.
“The omission of this vital information is likely to create a misleading expectation, with listeners believing they are already entitled to the various savings when, in fact, this is not yet the case,” it said.