About Hot Air Pod

An agency called Hot Air, which is a joke we have to live up to

Hot Air Pod Limited is registered for public relations and communications activities (SIC 70210) and advertising agencies (SIC 73110). Its registered office is at Napoleon Road in Twickenham.

The name is a joke at our own expense, and it sets the standard. An agency that deals in unsupported claims is exactly what the phrase describes, so the working rule here is that objective claims are substantiated before publication, not after a complaint.

In practice that means a few unglamorous habits. Evidence for a claim is collected and kept before the claim runs. Paid-for content, advertorial and influencer partnerships are clearly identified as advertising, because audiences are entitled to know when they are being sold to and the rules require it. Comparisons and superlatives are either provable or they are cut. And we do not write, commission or incentivise fake reviews or fake endorsements - that is now specifically unlawful, quite apart from being contemptible.

We are also not a media owner, a publisher or a research house, and we do not guarantee outcomes. Nobody can promise coverage, placement, a ranking or a sales figure, and an agency that does is telling you something about itself.

On marketing data: electronic marketing is only sent to people who may lawfully be sent it, and the client stays responsible for its own data and its own consents. We will say so even when the client would rather we did not.