ASA reprimands airline website for misleading customers
A website, www.kenyaairway.co.uk, has been reprimanded for disregarding the advertising code and for misleading customers.
It failed to respond to an investigation by advertising watchdogs after a complaint that it was wrongly implying it was the official site of Kenya Airways.
Its website states: “Kenya Airways. The Pride of Africa …. About Kenya Airways. Kenya Airways is the national carrier for Kenya.”
It continues with a description of the airline’s history and its network.
Only in small print at the bottom of the page does it state: “We are UK based [sic] authorized dealers for Kenya Airways. Our website should not be considered a representation of the airline. It is to provide flight options and promote sales worldwide”.
The Advertising Standards Authority said it was concerned by kenyaairway.co.uk’s lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code.
The ASA also noted that the website featured an image very similar to the official Kenya Airways logo at the top of every page, and directly underneath the logo was the tagline ‘the Pride of Africa’, the official tagline of Kenya Airways.
It said consumers were likely to understand from the logo, tagline, branding and image of the Kenya Airways plane, as well as the ‘About Kenya Airways’ section, that the website was the official website of Kenya Airways.
It said the small print text at the bottom of the website homepage is likely to be overlooked by consumers and was not sufficient to counter the overall impression that the website was the official website of Kenya Airways.
It told the website to ensure its website did not misleadingly imply that it was the official website of Kenya Airways.
A check by TravelMole showed the changes have yet to be made.
A spokesman for the ASA said: “Once our rulings are published, our Compliance team works directly with advertisers to amend or remove advertising so that it’s in line with our findings.
“We understand that it may take some time for advertisers to make changes and the vast majority of advertisers agree to follow our rules, but if we are under the impression that the advertiser is unwilling or unable to adjust their content and practices to adhere to the Advertising Codes, we’re ready to apply further sanctions.”
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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