Online adverts supporting Virgin Holidays’ ‘Tanuary sale’ competition have been branded as “irresponsible” by the advertising watchdog.
The Advertising Standards Authority upheld two complaints against the operator because they believed the ads encouraged consumers to tan their skin without raising awareness of sun safety.
The authority banned the ads despite saying it understood that Virgin Holidays communicated its partnership with a skin cancer charity to promote sensible tanning prior to the launch of the ‘Tanuary Sale’ promotion.
The ASA said: “Whilst we acknowledged ad (a) included an icon that stated “Please tan responsibly” and clicked through to a website dedicated to sun safety, we were concerned that the information was not given sufficient prominence.
“In particular, we noted the icon was significantly smaller than the headline claims which promoted the opportunity to win a holiday. We also considered the large prizes on offer were significant incentives for entrants to acquire a tan.
“We noted ad (b) did not refer to sun safety and invited consumers ‘… to hit the beach, bronze up and upload your #Tanuary tan line pic for all to see’ for the chance to win a holiday.
“We therefore considered the ads could encourage recipients to tan their skin without giving sufficient prominence to information about sun safety. On that basis, we concluded that the ads were irresponsible.”
Virgin Holidays said entrants who had submitted entries of sunburn were told by that their entries had been rejected and were provided information about the need to tan responsibly.