Smith & Smith ads not all they're cracked up to be

A complaint against a nationwide glass repair company has been upheld after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled its advertisements for windscreen repairs were misleading.

The complaint referred to four radio advertisements for Smith & Smith, all of which presented the point that once a windscreen chip became a crack people would have to replace their entire screen.

The complainant, D Hore of Crack Specialists Ltd, said the advertisements were incorrect as standards allowed glaziers to repair cracks up to 350mm outside the critical vision area.

Smith & Smith responded to the complaint saying while the standard did allow for the repairs, it did not repair cracks larger than a 50 cent coin for quality reasons.

The company said upon receiving the complaint one of the four advertisements was discontinued, although it argued this was a conservative step and it did not accept the advertisement was misleading, nor were the remaining three.

In its deliberation, the complaints board said consumers listening to the advertisements would understand "crack" to refer to any size crack, and therefore that any crack would require the wind screen to be replaced.

It ruled that the four advertisements breached the advertising ethics of truthful presentation and upheld the complaint.