TOUR AD FAILS THE SUMMERTIME TEST

An ad for a trip to Turkey has been banned in Britain for seemingly trying to mislead tourists about the timing of the offer. Tour operator Tui first ran the TV ad in June, with a voiceover that referred to the trip as a “perfect summer holiday” — though it only applied for departures between September 1 and October 31.

Responding to a complaint that the ad was misleading, since the given dates were not in summer, the Advertising Standards Authority concurred. It said viewers would have interpreted the “summer holiday” offer to mean June, July and August and ruled, “The ad must not appear again in its current form.”

The Telegraph reports that this is not the first time travel advertisers have fallen foul of the ASA. In 2011, a Ryanair promotion for spring flights was banned for showing a woman in a bikini. The ASA ruled that none of the included destinations — Glasgow, Oslo, and Lourdes — would be warm enough for swimwear at that time of year.