Great Western Railway Ad Banned For ‘Misleadingly Suggesting Public Ownership’

Watchdogs have ordered a railway company to change the wording on one of their adverts for misleadingly suggesting that it is publicly owned.

Great Western Railway’s (GWR) poster at London’s Paddington station drew complaints for the phrase: “The railway belongs to the region it serves”.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said that wording was likely to be understood to imply that the company was publicly owned.

They said: "We understood that the aim of the ad was to evoke a sense of identity between the organisation and consumers, and noted some of GWR’s profits were used to support local groups.

"However, we considered that the use of the world ‘belongs’ was likely to be understood to imply public, as opposed to private, ownership, rather than, for example, that community groups received funding.”

GWR - who recently changed their name from First Great Western - said that they were “disappointed” by the decision.

A spokesman added: “This campaign was designed to highlight the significant social and economic benefits the railway and our train services bring to the region we serve.

"It was never our intention to suggest GWR is a publicly owned company, instead we are proud of the work we do as a private company to benefit the region, and we are sorry if this wasn’t clear.

"This specific advert was one of a series of six that mainly ran in September and October last year and we do not intend to run them again.”

Mick Cash, leader of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, blasted the adverts, saying: "It is frankly disgusting that the privatised Great Western Railway have tried to kid people that they are somehow publicly owned when in fact they are just another bunch of corporate spivs looking to milk our railways for every penny that they can.

"The truth is that the private rail companies know that they are deeply unpopular for good reason and the fact that they have been pulled up by the Advertising Standards Authority for this outrageous stunt is good news.”

Pic: PA