Inspired by......

I am sick to the back teeth of hearing presenters using designer names to flog me jewellery. If I had a pound for every time I heard someone say 'it's inspired by' .. It makes me cringe just writing it !!

I can't believe they can use someone elses hard work to flog their own stuff so I did some digging around. As it turns out . They can't !!

According to the ASA they are NOT allowed to use the name or reputation of another company and they are not allowed to 'liken' their product to an existing company. As far as I can understand (I'm Swedish so I could have mis read) they are not actually allowed to say 'inspired by'

so please gems TV ... Stop doing it !

Allowable or not, "inspired by" to me simply means "copied*. <a href="http://plugin.smileycentral.com/http%253A%252F%252Fwww.smileycentral.com%252F%253Fpartner%253DZSzeb008%255FZNxpt484YYGB%2526i%253D15%252F15%255F5%255F4v%2526feat%253Dprof/page.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/15/15_5_4v.gif" alt="SmileyCentral.com" border="0"><img border="0" src="http://plugin.smileycentral.com/http%253A%252F%252Fimgfarm%252Ecom%252Fimages%252Fnocache%252Ftr%252Ffw%252Fsmiley%252Fsocial%252Egif%253Fi%253D15%252F15_5_4v%2526uiv%253D3.0/image.gif"></a> xxxxxx

I'm just surprised that, along with the illustrious names of high-end "boutique" jewellers, the likes of Liberace, Pat Butcher and Elvis haven't been cited as inspiration - after all, give credit where it's due!

Jinny x

I'm pretty sure "inspired by" is allowed. There will have to be subtle differences between the original and the "inspired by" piece.

For example I have bought a setting from Ebay that to all intents and purposes is the Tiffany Legacy setting. However, it's not marketed as a Legacy so ........ it's inspired by!

What gets me is the - 'this celebrity wears it, likes it, smells like it etc etc -' definately guaranteed to make me not buy ! The day I buy something because some celebrity or other has bought it, wears it, designed it or endorses it - is the day I finally fall off my trolleys ............xx

Rocchic said:

What gets me is the - 'this celebrity wears it, likes it, smells like it etc etc -' definately guaranteed to make me not buy ! The day I buy something because some celebrity or other has bought it, wears it, designed it or endorses it - is the day I finally fall off my trolleys ............xx

Click to expand...

Actually it can put me off! I once really liked a ring until it was being sold as seen on Cheryl Cole ................

Meeshoo said:

I'm pretty sure "inspired by" is allowed. There will have to be subtle differences between the original and the "inspired by" piece.

For example I have bought a setting from Ebay that to all intents and purposes is the Tiffany Legacy setting. However, it's not marketed as a Legacy so ........ it's inspired by!

Click to expand...

Ok, so here is what it says about 'comparisons' on the ASA website. The way i am reading this Gems and the other channels shouldn't really be using other brand names to sell their stuff.

• Advertisements must not create confusion between the advertiser and its competitors or between the advertiser’s product or service, trade mark, trade name or other distinguishing mark and that of a competitor.

• Advertisements must not present a product as an imitation or replica of a product or service with a protected trade mark or trade name.

• Advertisements must not take unfair advantage of the reputation of a competitor’s trade mark, trade name or other distinguishing mark

Whats you thoughts? Have i read this wrong? or am i just being REALLY REALLY hopeful?:dull:

People aren't trade marks so to say "inspired by Cheryl Cole" would be acceptable.

What you have to consider if they are selling a piece of jewellery that is inspired by or similar to something else the wording will be chosen very carefully. The semantics are what will win or lose a case like this. For example, if the wording is deliberately misleading i.e. the presenter states that you're getting a Tiffany ring then it's a no brainer and contravenes the standards. However, if you listen carefully to the presenters you'll see that they very rarely draw a direct comparison, it will be couched in "if's" "buts" and "maybes" AND they'll often use a variety of competitors names rather than just one which gets around this rule. More often than not, they don't even name the more expensive item and will simply say "a well known designer has something like this in his collection, I'm sure you know who I'm thinking of......". By not naming the designer, you haven't contravened anything!

Another way around this, and I'm sure you'll have heard this, is that if a presenter is talking about chocolate and they say "Mars Bars" they'll often check themselves and say, "of course Snickers are available, Twix and lots of other chocolate bars". This is precisely to get around this issue!

Yes, occasionally they fall foul of the regulations but not often.

In all honesty, I think it's more dishonest to give inflated prices of gemstones. Rocks and Co did this regularly. They would say, for example, "this Demantoid Garnet could sell for up to £10,000" - yes but that's if an idiot was buying it, it was top quality and sold by Tiffanys! Their claims were highly unrealistic and I actually took a case to the ASA about it but unfortunately they ruled in Rocks and Co's favour.

What you have to remember is that the ASA don't really know enough about the jewellery/gemstone business to understand wild claims!

Surely saying a bracelet is inspired by a Tiffany design is 'taking unfair advantage of another brand'? I have heard presenters harp on about the brand. That inspired the piece more than the piece they are selling!! It drives me up the wall, I think 'was it really inspired by them? Or have you just nicked the design? Or does it just look similar so your jumping on their coat tails' ... Aargh .... Annoying

what say the Bennets ?

Happygolucky - you don't seriously believe that the Bennetts will respond to this thread do you? You may as well say "see you in Court"!

Look at the wording again ..... inspired by is very different to presenting something as a copy/replica/imitation. Inspired by implies that there are similarities but NOT that it's an exact copy.

I'm NOT trying to defend anybody or any company because I genuinely believe there are companies that flout these regulations but trying to prove it is another case. In my humble opinion "inspired by" doesn't qualify but there may be others that disagree.