Financial company sent out x-ray result type mailings

Many consumers were recently shocked to find a rigid brown envelope fall onto the mats containing what appeared to be an x-ray result.

However, it turned out to be an advertisement by financial giant Friends Provident, who sent out the mailing to around ten thousand consumers as part of a test run.

The envelope even had a warning stating that x-ray film was enclosed and the envelope should not be bent. However, the company was in fact trying to sell income protection insurance.

The envelope did indeed contain an x-ray type image, and this was meant to make people think about what they would do about money if they had an accident.

Following the mailing the Advertising Standards Authority received a number of complaints from consumers who said that the mailing was masquerading as medical results, and the ASA agreed that the advertisement could have confused and distressed consumers that were indeed waiting on such results.

The ASA responded to the complaints and Friends Provident has since apologised to the customers that complaints.

An official from the ASA said: “We were concerned that the approach had caused alarm to some recipients and had misled them to believe the envelope contained official medical records belonging to them or their loved ones.”