Second complaint against Sovereign
A second strongly worded complaint has been made against advertising for Sovereign's 50 Plus insurance policy.
Thursday, September 7th 2000, 5:55PM 
1 Comment
In an earlier decision the Advertising Standards Complaints Board dismissed allegations by P Tobin that Sovereign's ads were "not only misleading," but "dishonest".
Tobin complained that the phrases "Insurance with Guaranteed Acceptance. No health questions" were either "misleading or blatantly untrue."
The reasoning behind this complaint was simply that one of the questions asked in the proposal was whether the applicant was a smoker or not.
The board's original opinion, that this was a lifestyle question and not a health one, was upheld by the appeal board.
"In context of this advertisement it was the Appeal Board's view that the question regarding an applicant's smoking habits was not a health question."
The board said that the question was simply to determine which category of premium an applicant paid, similar to asking questions about age and gender.
"This was not only permissible but quite common in actuarially based calculations."
Tobin says in his complaint and the appeal that if an applicant failed to answer the smoking question then the proposal would automatically be declined.
Sovereign's law firm, Andersen Legal, says in its written submission this is not the case.
"Sovereign has advised that a failure to answer the question regarding smoking would not result in a refusal to provide cover," it says.
Earlier story:Smoking: A question of lifestyle or health?
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