ASA Slaps Tiscali Following Complaints
Posted: 23rd Jul, 2003 By: MarkJ
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld two complaints made against Tiscali's ISP advertising by rival provider Freeserve:
Freeserve.com plc objected to a direct mailing, for an Internet service, that stated "Welcome to Tiscali 10.0 ... the next generation Internet service ... over 3 million UK members ... Tiscali 10.0 is the fast and reliable service from Tiscali - Europe's leading ISP ...". The complainants challenged the claims:
1. "Europe's leading ISP"
The Authority considered that the claim would be understood to mean the advertisers had the largest number of subscribers of any ISP in Europe. Because they did not, the Authority concluded that the claim was misleading and told the advertisers to remove it.
2. "over 3 million UK members"
The Authority understood that all accounts formerly held with the ISPs with which the advertisers had merged were now branded as Tiscali accounts. It nevertheless considered, that for "webmail" access to be included in the advertisers' membership figure was not reasonable, because readers would not consider persons with "webmail" access only to be subscribers to the advertisers' service, and because readers would infer that the number of members was the number of subscribers to the advertisers' service. The Authority asked the advertisers not to repeat the claim.
Freeserve.com plc objected to a direct mailing, for an Internet service, that stated "Welcome to Tiscali 10.0 ... the next generation Internet service ... over 3 million UK members ... Tiscali 10.0 is the fast and reliable service from Tiscali - Europe's leading ISP ...". The complainants challenged the claims:
1. "Europe's leading ISP"
The Authority considered that the claim would be understood to mean the advertisers had the largest number of subscribers of any ISP in Europe. Because they did not, the Authority concluded that the claim was misleading and told the advertisers to remove it.
2. "over 3 million UK members"
The Authority understood that all accounts formerly held with the ISPs with which the advertisers had merged were now branded as Tiscali accounts. It nevertheless considered, that for "webmail" access to be included in the advertisers' membership figure was not reasonable, because readers would not consider persons with "webmail" access only to be subscribers to the advertisers' service, and because readers would infer that the number of members was the number of subscribers to the advertisers' service. The Authority asked the advertisers not to repeat the claim.
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