The British Airways i360 tourist attraction in Brighton can no longer promote itself as the world’s tallest moving observation tower after the advertising watchdog ruled the claim as misleading.
The Advertising Standards Authority upheld a complaint that there were a number of observational towers with moving platforms that were taller than the i360.
Banning the advert on the attraction’s website seen last July, the ASA said: “We told Brighton i360 not to misleadingly imply that their observation tower was taller than other observation towers if that was not the case.”
In a ruling published today, it said: “The ASA considered that consumers would understand ‘the world’s tallest moving observation tower’ to mean the British Airways i360’s observation desk rose to a height higher than any other moving observation tower in the world.
“We noted the British Airways i360 moved a greater distance from the ground up than other towers. However, while the evidence provided by British Airways i360 showed that other moving observation areas rose from halfway up a tower structure and not from the ground, we noted that those towers rose higher into the air than the British Airways i360.
“Because we did not consider the British Airways i360 was taller than other observation towers in the way that consumers would understand it, we therefore concluded the ad was misleading.”
The company agreed to amend or withdraw its advertising.
However, British Airways i360 argued that it did not claim to have the highest moving observation tower but the tallest, defined as “measuring a specified distance from top to bottom”.
It said the “tallest moving observation tower” referred to the distance from which the British Airways i360 pod travelled – from ground level to 138m.
British Airways i360 said that the pod moved a greater vertical distance from the ground than any other moving observation tower.