ASA rules against Sanral
Citizen action has forced Sanral to withdraw factually incorrect advertising.
This is after the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) ruled against Sanral on three complaints against claims made in their E-toll advertising commercials.
Several weeks ago complaints were lodged with the ASA against Sanral for a radio commercial which thanked “people and organisations that have taken up 1.2-million tags for the Gauteng E-roads”, which further stated that such people had “recognised the benefits of the improved roads, keeping the lights on and the cameras watching over you”.
The ASA Directorate said that Sanral had provided no proof of the number of E-tags sold, despite having been given another month to substantiate their claim. It ruled that this unsubstantiated claim was, therefore, also misleading.
With respect to the second complaint ASA also ruled that the cameras were clearly not “watching over you” as a safety measure, and that it created a “misleading impression, and exaggerates the functionality and the purpose of the cameras”, since “they serve no safety purpose and are merely used for billing purposes”.
The third complaint lodged disputed Sanral’s claims of the road user’s average monthly cost of E-tolls as being “flawed and ambiguous, if not disingenuous”.
While Sanral had claimed that over 82.83 per cent would pay less than R100 per month, and only one per cent of road users would pay more than R400 per month, it was calculated on the basis of known traffic volumes between Johannesburg and Pretoria that the actual figures were vastly different.
In all likelihood less than eight per cent would pay less than R100 per month, and that 10 per cent would pay more than R400 per month (and reach the E-tagged capped amount of R450 per month).
Sanral was afforded time to substantiate their calculations but failed to do so. Accordingly the ASA upheld the complaint.
On all three counts the ASA has found Sanral’s advertising to be unsubstantiated and misleading and ordered Sanral to withdraw the advertising “with immediate effect”, and has instructed that it “must not be used again in its current format unless new substantiation has been submitted, evaluated and accepted by means of a new Directorate ruling”. @CarmenBoksburg
