Posted: 02nd Sep, 2009 By: MarkJ
The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld two complaints made by BT against a circular advert for TalkTalks UK ISP home phone and broadband (Essentials) package. The promotion compared the TalkTalk service to a similar set of options from BT, but failed to offer a completely correct comparison.
1. In particular BT challeneged whether the claim "1/2 Price Calls to Mobiles" was misleading, because it did not take into account that there was a connection fee.
2. The operator also alledged that the ad misled customers by omission, because it did not make clear that customers would lose security features by switching from BT to TalkTalk, and that customers would have to pay a supplement to get an equivalent service.
The ASA upheld both complaints:http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_46887.htm