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ASA holds against Santander card ad

The ASA has ordered Santander not to show a credit card advertisement again in its current form. The TV advert, aired last November, showed various scenarios including people looking at holiday photos, choosing games and discussing finances. A voiceover stated benefits the All in One card would give, including cashback on all purchases, no fee for spending abroad and 0% on balance transfers for 40 months. Text on the screen stated 0.5% cashback, that retailer and ATM fees may apply abroad and that there was a 1% balance transfer fee. It gave a representative example. A viewer challenged the ad, saying the Rep APR was not given appropriate prominence. Santander said it was, and that, as FCA rules required, the Rep APR was not given greater prominence than the representative example, which itself had no greater prominence than the incentive for taking out credit or any other information relating to the cost of credit. The ASA acknowledged it understood why Santander thought the ad was compliant, and said the size of the text and the amount of time it was on screen was sufficient for it to be clear to viewers. However, it thought the visual footage emphasised and therefore added prominence to what was described in the voiceover – thus making the on-screen text less prominent than the information that was communicated verbally.  For that reason the ASA said the ad breached the BCAP Code rule 14.11.