The adverts featured scenes which showed puppet characters calling an anonymous payday loan company which was unable to offer them loan features which Sunny provided.
The first ad featured a female puppet sitting behind a desk and holding a mug which said payday loans responding to a male voice on the phone stating she had not heard of Sunny rates.
The male voice said: “They’re rates that can drop the next time you borrow just by making four on-time payments. Do you have that?”
The scene implied the anonymous payday lender did not offer these terms.
The advert did not show any RAPR.
The second advert depicted another nameless payday loan company whereby the customer asked if the loan company had Sunny flexi-pay ‘that thing where you pick your repayment schedule?’.
The puppet said: “Er, no … but we can dance!” Puppet characters in the background started dancing to music.
This advert did display a RAPR at the bottom of the screen in small lettering.
Both adverts showed the customer, post call, looking at the Sunny website which stated: “Introducing Sunny, a new way to borrow up to £1,000 when you need it. Learn more about Sunny rates at sunny.co.uk. Good today. Better tomorrow.”
The ASA ruled that the adverts must not be broadcast again in their current form.
It said that when adverts indicated that their credit was available on more favourable terms than a comparable product it must show an RAPR. The RAPR must be displayed in a promininant way so it is not overshadowed by other information.
After further consideration of the advert, Sunny said it accepted that the use in the advert of the generic payday loans business, not offering Sunny rates, created scope to argue an implied comparison with terms applied by other creditors. It said it was therefore prepared to include the RAPR in the ad in future.
