Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Jean-Patrique Cookware has flouted the advertising rules again – this time only weeks after its last misdemeanour.
The Sittingbourne, Kent-based company sent out an email about a special offer to “help clear our warehouse for 2010”. A five-piece chef’s knife set was offered at £1.99 instead of the £125.75 RRP.
However, a customer told the Advertising Standards Authority that he did not think the company had enough stock of the knives to meet demand. He ordered a set in July but had still not received them by late August. Jean-Patrique told him that there had been high demand for the knives and that it was waiting for further supplies – but he received a further email from the company in August advertising the offer again.
The ASA decided that the email was misleading because the company was unable to show that it had made a reasonable estimate of the response to the promotion and because it carried on advertising the knives when it knew about the supply problems.
The ASA also said that Jean-Patrique had ignored its enquiries – as it did when it upheld a complaint about a similar email in November. On both occasions the ASA said that the company had shown an “apparent disregard” for the ad code and asked the Committee of Advertising Practice “to inform its members about the problem with Jean-Patrique Cookware”.
Earlier last year the company got into trouble with the ad watchdog for failing to have enough kettles featured in a special promotion.
