ASA Bans Vodafone UK’s “Reliable, Award-Winning Network” Claim

A complaint raised by EE (BT) has prompted the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to ban a website banner and press advert for broadband and mobile provider Vodafone, which were both found to have made a “misleading” claim of being “the UK’s Reliable, Award-winning network“.

EE complained that the wording was meant to imply that Vodafone were the most reliable network or the only reliable network, which they naturally felt was misleading and could not be substantiated. But Vodafone countered that they were merely referencing the fact that they had won “numerous awards” (as linked in the adverts) and did not use comparative language (i.e. they weren’t claiming to be the ‘best’ or ‘top’ provider etc.).

Vodafone said that “The UK’s” was a singular possessive noun, used in the context of the claim to refer to the network provider Vodafone UK, which operated in (i.e., belonged to) the UK. The operator believed it would be evident to the average consumer that Vodafone UK was not the only reliable network.

However, the ASA upheld the complaint and decided that Vodafone’s statements were comparative, which required objective substantiation and this was not provided.

ASA Ruling (REF: A22-1148595 Vodafone Ltd)

We noted, for example, that the ads did not state that Vodafone was “a reliable UK network” or “a reliable network in the UK”, nor did the ads refer to “our reliable UK network”. We considered claims phrased in that way would be unlikely to be considered as comparative, depending on the context in which they appeared.

Because we considered that the claims “The UK’s Reliable, Award-winning network” and “On the UK’s reliable award-winning network” were comparative, we required objective substantiation for that comparative and superior claim. We understood that Vodafone had intended to make a non-comparative claim and therefore did not hold such evidence.

We therefore concluded that the claims “The UK’s Reliable, Award-winning network” and “On the UK’s reliable award-winning network” had not been substantiated and were likely to mislead.

As usual, the ASA banned the promotions in their current form and told Vodafone not to make an implied comparative claim, unless they held objective comparative evidence to substantiate the claim as it would be understood by consumers.

A separate complaint was also raised by members of the public against a different Vodafone TV advert (here), but this was not upheld and related to the depiction of a midwife instructing a paramedic to rotate a baby in the breech position. Some people took that advert a little too seriously.