Legal, decent, honest and truthful?

buspassman
buspassman Posts: 35
edited March 2010 in The bottom bracket
Over the last few months, it seems that every cycling magazine going has
been carrying a full-page advert from ZipVit. Emblazened across the top of
this advert is the claim "What do the top 2 cycling teams in the world
have in common?", the answer being that they both use ZipVit products.

The two teams in question are Cervelo (who ended 2009 ranked 7th by the
UCI) and Radioshack, who have no record whatsoever to speak of. So how on
earth can these two teams be proclaimed the top in the world? What about
HTC-Columbia, Garmin Transitions, Saxo Bank among many others with a far
better claim (and record to back it up) to being higher in the rankings
than either of these supposed top two.

Is there no editorial responsibility involved here? Can any advertiser
make any old claim, and it will just be printed? Would, for instance,
a claim be printed that some product or other will make you go twice as fast?

The Advertising Standards Authority requires all adverts to be "legal,
decent, honest and truthful". I believe that this advert plainly does not
meet at least two of these requirements. I have asked them to look into
whether my belief is correct.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    You're right, One of them should be Macclesfield Wheelers.
  • skyd0g
    skyd0g Posts: 2,540
    If it was 'these' rather than 'the' top two, it would be okay (just).
    Damned typos, eh? :wink:
    Cycling weakly
  • northernneil
    northernneil Posts: 1,549
    to subjective a matter:-

    who are the top 2 rugby teams, football teams, in the world

    then also

    by what criteria ? number of wins, number of GC winners in the team, altitude of thier training base ?
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    northernneil wrote:
    to subjective a matter:-

    who are the top 2 rugby teams, football teams, in the world

    then also

    by what criteria ? number of wins, number of GC winners in the team, altitude of thier training base ?

    Popularity/Public awareness could well be added to that. I bet a lot more Americans have heard of Team Radioshack than HTC Columbia...
  • fast as fupp
    fast as fupp Posts: 2,277
    buspassman wrote:
    Over the last few months, it seems that every cycling magazine going has
    been carrying a full-page advert from ZipVit. Emblazened across the top of
    this advert is the claim "What do the top 2 cycling teams in the world
    have in common?", the answer being that they both use ZipVit products.

    The two teams in question are Cervelo (who ended 2009 ranked 7th by the
    UCI) and Radioshack, who have no record whatsoever to speak of. So how on
    earth can these two teams be proclaimed the top in the world? What about
    HTC-Columbia, Garmin Transitions, Saxo Bank among many others with a far
    better claim (and record to back it up) to being higher in the rankings
    than either of these supposed top two.

    Is there no editorial responsibility involved here? Can any advertiser
    make any old claim, and it will just be printed? Would, for instance,
    a claim be printed that some product or other will make you go twice as fast?

    The Advertising Standards Authority requires all adverts to be "legal,
    decent, honest and truthful". I believe that this advert plainly does not
    meet at least two of these requirements. I have asked them to look into
    whether my belief is correct.

    does anyone believe what they read in the ads...............thats if they bother reading them?
    'dont forget lads, one evertonian is worth twenty kopites'

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