The latest TV ad for Procter & Gamble’s Flash Dust Magnet might be cheesy, even annoying, but according to the ad watchdog, it is “legal, decent, honest and truthful” despite claims to the contrary.
The ad, devised inhouse by PGOne, features the product snaking between objects, cleaning around them. A voiceover by actor and Flash Gordon star Brian Blessed states: “Trap lock that dastardly dust wherever it lurks, without moving objects around.”
In fact, the spot had been running for more than 10 months when one viewer had simply had enough and rifled off a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority, arguing that the product did not move as shown in the ad.
In response to the ASA investigation, P&G pointed out that the duster is made of 192,000 individual strands of fibre. This fibre easily compresses when in tight spaces and is resilient enough to regain its shape because of its airy 3D structure.
The spines are made from a blend of two polymer components, one of which provides additional flexibility to the spines. Compression tests were conducted on the two spines to confirm their ability to flatten and recover their original form.
These, P&G maintained, showed the duster was able to snake between objects. The degree of motion varied, depending on the weight of the objects and the positioning of the duster on the two spines, but in all cases the product removed dust, without the need to move objects.
P&G even provided a video demonstration of the product, intended to show that it snaked between objects in the way shown in the ad.
In its ruling, published today, the ASA said it considered viewers were likely to interpret from the ad that the duster could snake between objects in the way shown without the need to move them, due to the product cleaning closely around items.
In the video demonstration provided, the duster was used to clean between a series of objects and was directly compared to the clip in the ad where it was used to complete the same task.
Concluding that there was no material difference between the depiction of the duster in the ad compared to the demonstration of the product provided the watchdog went on to rule that the ad did not exaggerate the capability of the product.
It told P&G that no further action was necessary and cleared the ad for future broadcast.
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