Advertising Standards Authority

Wednesday, April 2, 2003

A nursery that claimed in the local Essex press, 'We have just been voted the number one childcare provider', has been asked to remove this wording from advertisements after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a complaint about it. The Sunshine Day Nursery in Westcliff-on-Sea based its claim on a survey carried out in Sunshine Babyworld, a supermarket owned by one of its sister companies. The ASA ruled that 'the methodology of the survey was flawed' and was 'likely to mislead people into thinking the accolade had been given by an independent organisation'. The survey asked people to rate four nurseries, two of which were other Sunshine Day Nursery Schools in Essex and one that was another nursery provider.