Political & product liability: Sarah Moore highlights what politicians & toothpaste do not have in common
- While the consumer is protected against the misleading claims of toothpaste and other product advertisers, the voter remains exposed to the unchecked claims of all political parties.
In what is proving to be a seismic episode for British politics, not to mention the financial markets—the news that the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has received complaints relating to pre-referendum political advertising may well have escaped the attention of the general public.
According to a report in The Guardian on 28 June 2016 (“Ad watchdog powerless to act on controversial Brexit campaigns”), ASA has received almost 400 complaints about what petitioners have called misleading, inaccurate and discriminatory ads intended to influence voters ahead of the referendum.
Complaints concerned a range of materials, including high profile Vote Leave advertisements stating: “Let’s give our NHS the £350m the EU takes every week.” This message was also emblazoned on the side of the campaign’s battle bus: “We send the EU £350 million a week—let’s fund our NHS instead.” In recent weeks the veracity of these
