An ad placed by recruiter Rightstep Recruitment has been ruled as misleading by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

A fax sent to a local authority on 10 May 2011 was headed ‘BOOKING ORDER’ and featured a table with the headings ‘Vacancy’, ‘Item’ and ‘Cost’. In the table, under the ‘Vacancy’ heading, text stated ‘Family Outreach Service Worker’, under the ‘Item’ heading, text stated ‘1’ and under the heading ‘Cost’, text stated ‘£1,250’.

Text underneath the table stated ‘Please sign and return via the fax number on the top left of this form. Once signed you have confirmed our permission to publish this advert and also the copyright to the material contained in this advert’. Text at the top of the page stated ‘Booking Reference No. XXXXXXXXX’. The following page contained a job description for the vacancy.

Warwickshire Trading Standards challenged whether the advertisement was misleading, as it appeared to be an invoice but was in fact an advert for recruitment services.

The ASA considered that although the ad was headed ‘BOOKING ORDER’, it had a layout similar to an invoice since it contained a booking reference number, was itemised, stated ‘Total £1,250’, requested a signature and to be returned via the fax number at the top of the form.

The ASA also noted that the ad did not contain prominent text indicating that it was a marketing communication and considered that consumers were likely to infer that it related to a past booking, which required payment.

Consequently, the ASA ruled that the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.7 (Unreasonable delay), 2.1 (Recognition of marketing communications), 3.1 and 3.3 (Misleading advertising) and 9.8 (Distance selling) and must not appear again in its current form.

Rightstep Recruitment were told to ensure that their marketing communications are obviously identifiable as such in future and we reminded them of their responsibility to respond to ASA enquiries promptly in future.