This story is genius – thanks to Guy over on Think Demux for blogging it first (and sorry for the blatant re-post, but it’s too good not not share). He has some commentary around it.
Anyway, this DFS ad has been banned. Not because it’s a hunk of shit, but for other reasons…
The Daily Mail is the best place to read the story. Obviously.
Basically they shrunk the people in post production to make the sofas look bigger.
DFS were asked by the ASA to supply photographs of the sofas, together with dimensions, to prove their size.
However, the company said this was not possible as they had all been sold.
The firm did supply pictures of some of the sofas with people sitting on them, which were used in various print advertising. It said these were actual photographs and had not been manipulated.
However, it is not clear whether the actors used in these advertisements were small, which again would have suggested the furniture was bigger than it really was.
Smashing.
The best bit is this line from DFS:
“In addition, the main concern of many customers when buying a new sofa is that it may be too large to fit into their house or flat, so that exaggerating the size of products would actually have been a deterrent rather than an aid to sales.”
Brilliant.
On a side note, can the ASA make it an offense to use Nickelback songs in any adverts?