ASA UK Upholds Complaint by Sky against a BT Broadband Bundle Press Advert
Posted: 16th Feb, 2011 By: MarkJ
The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has today upheld one of three complaints made by BSkyB against a national press advert for BT Retails 24-month contract based Total Sports bundle of TV, broadband ISP, calls and line rental. BT used the advert as a comparison against a similar Sky Broadband bundle, which only ran off a 12-month contract term. However BT only mentioned this fact in the footnote and the ASA concluded that, given its importance, the qualification should have been more prominent.
ASA Conclusion (16th February 2011)
The ASA noted BT only offered the featured package with a 24-month contract, and the most comparable product came with a 12-month contract. Although the footnote set out that the contract with BT was for 24 months, because that was a significant qualification that could affect consumers' understanding of the headline savings claim, we considered it should be more prominent.
Because the qualification was in the footnote, and not in the body copy or immediately below the savings claim, we concluded the ad was likely to mislead readers.
On this point the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 11) clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 and 7.2 (Truthfulness) and 18.1 and 18.2 (Comparisons with identified competitors).
The ASA noted BT only offered the featured package with a 24-month contract, and the most comparable product came with a 12-month contract. Although the footnote set out that the contract with BT was for 24 months, because that was a significant qualification that could affect consumers' understanding of the headline savings claim, we considered it should be more prominent.
Because the qualification was in the footnote, and not in the body copy or immediately below the savings claim, we concluded the ad was likely to mislead readers.
On this point the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 11) clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 and 7.2 (Truthfulness) and 18.1 and 18.2 (Comparisons with identified competitors).
The ASA said that BT's ad must not appear again its current form. Sky also challenged BT on two other points of their comparison, specifically regarding the included Sky Sports TV content and line rental pricing. Neither of those two complaints was upheld.
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