Mysterious billboards that have sprouted up across the city claiming that “legal names are illegal” have left many Dundee residents perplexed.
Advertising boards bearing cryptic slogans such as “there is no such thing as a legal name” and “legal name fraud-the truth” have been spotted across the city over the past two weeks.
It is understood that the advertisements have been put up in various locations across Dundee by a company called legalnamefraud.com.
There are no registered companies in the UK trading under the name legalnamefraud.com, but there is a website that lays claim to putting the posters up.
Primesight confirmed that the boards cost £350 for a two week rental, and with at least three of the boards visible in Dundee, over £1000 may have been spent on the campaign in the city.
The adverts can be seen at the junction at the bottom of Forfar Road and Mains Loan, Clepington Road and at the bottom of Riverside Approach- on one of the pillars of the Tay rail bridge.
The mysterious adverts have also been reported in other parts of the UK, including Preston, Leeds and Swindon.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) did confirm that they have received a number of complaints about the posters, but they are not currently investigating the complaints any further.
A spokesperson for the ASA said: “We received seven complaints about posters by legalnamefraud.com.
“The general nature of the complaints were that the ad was ambiguous and/or misleading. Some questioned whether it would lead law-abiding people into thinking they have committed fraud or a crime by having a name.
“We carefully assessed the complaints but on this occasion did not consider that there were grounds for further investigation.
“While we acknowledged that the ad may appear somewhat confusing to consumers and it was not initially clear what it was for or what it means; the issue here lay with the ambiguous message of the ad, which alone was not particularly harmful, misleading or likely to cause widespread offence, and unlikely to cause consumers confusion regarding their own name.”
