The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has taken no action against Boyden Interim Management after it received a compliant about one of its advertisement which appeared in a national newspaper.

The complaints, which were made by BIE Interim Executive, challenged whether the claim the adverts use of "independent" was misleading, because the company was a part of Boyden International. It also complained that the adverts use of "Boyden Interim Management is the leading independent provider of high level interim executives to both private and public sectors" was misleading and could not be substantiated.

The ASA did not upheld the complaints noting that Boyden is a separate entity from Boyden World Corporation in terms of ownership and control.  It said: "We understood that the Boyden World Corporation was a network of independent firms which licensed the Boyden brand for a particular territory. We considered that, because Boyden had demonstrated its independence, in terms of finance, ownership and operational control, it had substantiated the claim "independent". We concluded that the ad was unlikely to mislead."

It also decided not to uphold the complaints about the company being a leading provider. It said: "We noted the Plimsoll analysis and Ipsos-MORI data showed that they were ranked highly in several areas. We noted the claim was qualified by the terms "independent" and "high level" and, therefore, we considered that readers were unlikely to understand the claim to refer to the interim management sector as a whole."

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