The brothers, who were told they had won three days before the trip, landed in
Cologne on Aug 31. They then had to pay their own way to get to the hotel in
Maastricht, Holland, more than 75 miles away.
At the hotel, requests for single beds had been ignored, forcing the brothers
to share, and there was no spa despite the promoters promising a “spa
hotel”.
After crossing another border to get to the track, the pair discovered their
tickets were for a grandstand rather than the VIP area. Before Jenson Button
took the chequered flag, they had to leave to get their flight home from
Brussels.
Afterwards, the men questioned whether the “VIP” description of the prize was
misleading.
Red Bull said that the conditions were made clear prior to entry and its
competition had claimed that the entire package rather than the seats were
VIP. Because the flight was short haul, only one class of travel was
available and the tickets to the race cost £300 each, it said.
The company accepted that the winner had been forced to pay for travel across
three countries, but added that he had been warned that this was the deal.
It apologised over the shared bed, and once it became clear the brothers had
to leave early for the return flight, Red Bull had offered to cover the
expenses.
Upholding the complaint, the ASA said that the pitfalls of the holiday were
not made clear. It added: “We considered that the term “VIP”, in the context
of the ad, was likely to be understood by readers as exclusive, and
specifically non-standard, and that they would not expect, unless otherwise
stated in the promotion, for the flights to be with a budget airline.
“We also considered that “VIP” had a specific meaning in the ticketing
industry and that, given that the Grand Prix issued tickets that included
admission to a VIP area, readers would expect the winning tickets to include
this. The ad must not appear again in its current form.”