ASA ruling re the meaning of 'summer holidays'

[JellySlice]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45262708

ASA say that 'summer holidays' only applies to June, July & August, so to advertise for summer holidays that can only be taken in September and October is misleading.

Only if you have children at school, surely? And even then, June is not 'summer holiday'.

Before we had school-age dc, we always took our summer holidays outside peak season. Even in England we had lovely summery weather right up to October half-term.

Whats your aibu?

A holiday in october isnt a summer holiday is it?

Has been for me and all the other people at the resorts, hotels, beaches, attractions, getting sunburnt etc.

It's more that I think the ASA are being unreasonable.

Well autumn begins during the third week of September in Northern europe therefore it's not summer neither is October. I usually have my 'summer' holiday in September (although this is probably the last year for that).

The tui ad is misleading imo and I like travelling with Tui!

Meteorological Summer is classed as June, July and August so any holidays outside this period would not be Summer holidays.

The ASA has ruled in the past that it is socially irresponsible to advertise a holiday prize as a "family holiday" if it couldn't be taken during school holidays (a lot of prizes do exclude school holidays or at the very least bank holidays and any other time you might actually want to go away eg Christmas, Easter, Valentines etc).

I think this adjudication is fairly reasonable - September is a bit of a grey area to whether it is "summer" but October is definitely autumn even if it's warm. And I think June is summer.

Depends on your definition. I would count a summer holiday as one where it is warm and sunny. We usually holiday in the Med in September or early October and to us, that is definitely a summer holiday.

I think the advert and the ruling is about a holiday to Turkey, which is still going to be hot and sunny at these times.

However, I'm sure there holiday destinations the world that have a rainy season somewhere in June/July/August (the Thai boys trapped in the cave has taught me that in Thailand the rainy season includes July and August). Therefore I would be mighty pissed off if I was encouraged by an advert to go to Thailand in August for a beach holiday and it pissed it down massively.

In Scotland schools break up in June and go back part way through August.

I agree that June is Summer, but I’m pretty sure that the majority of schools start their summer holiday towards the end of July, not in June. I realise Scotland start earlier but they are the exception, not the rule.

Summer to me is June, July and August.

October is not summer whatsoever

It’s summer to me but I work in the travel industry so I think of May-October as summer season. Surely people booking holidays to places like Turkey and Cyprus in October aren’t thinking of it as a winter holiday? I don’t know really on this one, I’m on the fence! It’s clearly not summer here but still summer season in many resorts.

As said, from June and up to 23rd September, is Summer, so the ASA are wrong and they shouldn't have won the ruling.

"" ensure that their future advertising did not mislead by claiming to offer summer holidays if those holidays were outside of the period that consumers were likely to consider as summer holidays""

What about all of the people who don't consider that Summer ends in August? and the fact that it doesn't?

So what people consider can overrule fact? I've been on holiday a with people who didn't know that Egypt and Morocco were in North Africa.
What next? They can't advertise holidays were they are geographically located and must go were people consider them to be?

""It is a fact that in the U.K. school summer holidays begin in June.""

It doesn't matter when the school holidays start and end. We don't all have school age children to consider.

Summer in the Northern Hemisphere is June to September. If they are offering summer holidays to Turkey in June or September, they are Summer Holidays.

Summer isn't defined by the weather, as anyone in Britain knows only too well. It has to be a given time period. I don't highly rate the ASA but it seems highly pernickerty to argue with them on this. Why can't an October holiday just be a 'holiday'?

September is a bit of a grey area to whether it is "summer"

Most of September is summer. Most of June is spring.

Is there really anywhere outside Scotland where the school holidays begin in June? It's late July (at least the 20th) everywhere I know about.

May/June and September/October are often known as the 'shoulder' season in holiday terms.

July and August being peak, as in hottest and highest demand, but recognising that there is still significant demand from people not tied to the peak season in the other months, and that the weather is usually still decent then, especially in the southern Med.

When booking accomodation, you often see various prices, with the highest being July and August, then May, June, September and October, and the cheapest prices being outside these months, but not Easter and Christmas, which may also attract peak or shoulder pricing.

I think Ireland (and possibly Northern Ireland) has summer holidays from June onwards.

And possibly Germany and Scandinavian/Nordic countries - some of these are back at School from mid August, which suggests starting holidays earlier than mid July.

School holidays in England start late July,

But summer is June July August and advertising sept oct as summer holidays is misleading

Hmm, you quoted what I wrote FrancisCrawford but left out my first sentence- where I completely agreed that June is part of summer?! I only went on to say not all school holidays start in June as stating they do is factually incorrect. It doesn’t mean I disagree with the fact that June is in the summer...

Irish school holidays started on 29 June this year

For primary. Secondary started on the 31st May.