Posted: 26th Jan, 2011 By: MarkJ

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint, which was made by a member of the public, against a
bus poster (advert) for ISP PlusNet UK's cheapest '
Plusnet Value' (£6.49 per month) broadband service, which claimed that the
small print at the bottom was illegible.
PlusNet disagreed with the complaint and stated that its small print was "
point size 132" and therefore believed it was legible. It's understood that the complainant
saw the poster on the back of a bus, which can make small print difficult to read.
ASA Conclusion
We noted the Code did not specify a minimum point size for small print, or other text, in posters. We considered, however, that small print should be clearly visible to a normally sighted person reading the marketing communication once from a reasonable distance and at a reasonable speed.
We understood from the small print that broadband was only available at £6.49 if the customer lived in one of PlusNet's "low cost areas" and that the price was £12.99 from month four otherwise.
We considered that the poster should have made clear that the quoted price of £6.49 for broadband was not available to all. Because the small print explaining that was illegible, we concluded that the poster was misleading.
The ASA concluded to uphold the complaint and deemed that the poster breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 and 3.3 (
Misleading advertising) and 3.9 and 3.10 (Qualifications). However none of that really matters now because the campaign has already finished.