Wheels fall off bike chain business’s ad campaign for wrongly suggesting endorsement of Olympic winner

A bike chain manufacturer has been rebuked by the Advertising Standards Authority for misleading people into thinking that an Olympic medal winning cyclist had endorsed their products when she had not. KMC had an advert with a picture of Emma Johansson, which said that she had chosen their products. However, she had never consented to her image being used in this way and the ASA upheld a complaint that the advert was misleading for suggesting that she was endorsing their products. KMC said that the picture was genuine and Johansson’s cycling team was sponsored by KMC. Johansson herself, though, had not personally endorsed the products. She had not agreed for her image to be used. The ad therefore breached the CAP Code.

The CAP Code is a code of practice governing the content of adverts and marketing communications, and it is administered by the ASA. Although the Code does not have legal force, it is best practice to comply with it, as failure to do so can result in bad publicity and ultimately an inability to obtain advertising space. The ASA here ruled that KMC must not use the advert again and should ensure it had people’s approval for products allegedly endorsed by them.

Paul Gershlick, a Partner at Matthew Arnold & Baldwin LLP and editor of www.Upload-IT.com, comments: ‘This seems the correct result. It follows on from the Eddie Irvine case a few years ago which established image rights, when the racing driver was awarded £25,000 by the Court of Appeal after talkSPORT had featured his photo superimposed with a radio containing talkSPORT’s logo without his permission. This latest ruling shows that the ASA will also take action to stop the practice. In addition, it may now be possible for traders conducting misleading practices to be prosecuted under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations.’