Ads watchdog raps Barlows over controversial litigation campaign
Legal Week reports
September 27, 2006 at 08:03 PM
2 minute read
The Barlow Lyde & Gilbert ad campaign that sparked outrage among in-house lawyers generated more publicity of the wrong kind last week after the UK's advertising watchdog upheld a complaint against the firm.
The controversial advertisement, designed to promote Barlows' prowess as a litigation practice, appeared in the national press, naming 250 legal counsel under the tagline: "If you'd like your name kept out of the legal pages, take a note of ours."
In the ruling, which was announced on 20 September, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it had received a number of complaints from people identified in the campaign.
It added: "The purpose of the ad was not clear and was likely to be misunderstood. Some readers might infer that the ad listed people who were currently, or recently had been, involved in litigation."
The ASA also asked the law firm not to use a similar approach in future advertising.
Barlows issued a statement in response to the ASA's ruling saying: "[The firm] is disappointed that the ASA Council has upheld a complaint about one of our recent advertisements. We regret any unintended cause for complaint."
The ASA's ruling under-lines the ad's status as the biggest marketing own goal in UK law since the then Hammond Suddards in 2000 spent a six-figure sum on a widely-panned re-branding campaign courtesy of Saatchi & Saatchi Rowland in 2002.
However, other national campaigns, such as one run by DLA, have been well received.
Barclays general counsel Mark Harding, Charles Lawton at Rio Tinto and Peter Bevan at BP are all known to have been upset by the Barlows' advertisement campaign.
First reported on legalweek.com (21 September).
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