ASIC has announced that HSBC Bank Australia has changed the advertising for its current “Let’s Bankercise” campaign, in response to ASIC concerns that ads featuring a headline claim that consumers could receive ‘Up to 0.95% p.a. off a HSBC Home Smart Loan’ were potentially misleading.

The fine print disclosed that only loans of $1,500,000 or larger were eligible for the full 0.95% discount, with smaller loan amounts starting from $250,000 receiving smaller discounts.

HSBC has agreed to change the wording to more clearly disclose the discounts on offer.

Words and phrases that are used every day (such as “up to”) may be misunderstood by ordinary consumers. If consumers take a different meaning to the one that is intended, they may be misled. To avoid misunderstandings, advertisers must make adequate disclosure of special conditions.

Other words that need to be used with caution include “free”, “new” and “discount”.

ASIC Regulatory Guide 234 gives guidance with respect to the use of ‘independent’, ‘impartial’ or ‘unbiased’.

RG 234.45 and 46 state:

the more that a qualification is required to balance the information contained in the headline claim, the more prominently placed the qualification should be. The headline claim must not itself be misleading….

If warnings, disclaimers and qualifications are required, they should not be inconsistent with other content in the advertisement, including any headline claims. They should also have sufficient prominence to effectively convey key information to a reasonable member of the audience on first viewing of the advertisement.