The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint against a TV advertisement by US-based Greenlight Forex, a foreign exchange market prediction service.
A TV ad showed a black and white image of three men dressed in 1950s’ clothing staring questioningly at a globe while the voice-over said: “Attention. Is this how you make currency decisions? There is a better way.” The men then looked towards the viewer and the image was replaced with footage of their website and their trading and performance lists.
The voice-over continued: “Welcome to Greenlight Forex. We are the world’s most accurate currency forecasters...In the past three years our subscribers have never had a losing month. For proof go to our website where you can see each months performance.”
A viewer challenged whether the claim, “In the past three years our subscribers have never had a losing month” could be substantiated.
The ASA noted Greenlight Forex’s explanation that their closing rates were taken from reports published by a foreign currency exchange provider. However, it considered that in order to establish whether the reported “wins” and “loses” were accurate, Greenlight Forex would need to demonstrate that the daily currency predictions that had been made, matched those results.
The ASA stated that because Greenlight Forex had not provided independent evidence of the daily currency forecasts that had been made and whether those forecasts were reported in line with the closing results, it considered that the company had not substantiated the claim.
