The Daily Mail has been censured for failing to anticipate the demand for Marmite when it ran a promotion offering free jars on its front page.
The advertising watchdog has ruled against the newspaper after readers went to Iceland stores to redeem its voucher but found that many had “fewer than ten in stock or none at all”. Some complained to the Advertising Standards Authority, saying they had been misled by the promotion.
The watchdog accused the newspaper of failing to provide any documentary evidence to support its claim that it had conducted a “reasonable estimate” of likely demand.
It added that the Daily Mail had failed to account for the pent-up demand for Marmite after the public dispute between Tesco and Unilever that resulted in jars being withdrawn from shelves days before the promotion.
In a statement, the watchdog said: “We did not consider that phrases such as ‘subject to availability’, ‘stock is limited’ and ‘while stocks last’ were sufficient to convey to consumers the limited number of Marmite jars available.”
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The Daily Mail and Iceland said that the number of jars redeemed was less than the stock available and promised to change the way they ran similar promotions in the future.