Complaints lodged against O2 poster advert

Telecomworldwire, June 17, 2004

TELECOMWORLDWIRE-17 June 2004-Complaints lodged against O2 poster advert(C)1994-2004 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD http://www.m2.com

UK mobile network O2 was reported to the UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over a poster advertising campaign for a 'Bolt on' text-message offer, which claimed "3p texts to anyone. No daily limit".

A footnote to the poster stated "UK networks only. Use within 1 month".

The complainant believed that the poster misleadingly implied that the offer applied to all networks, including those based outside the UK, because the footnote was too small. The ASA agreed with this complaint and told O2 that future advertisements should state the qualification more prominently.

The Authority itself put forward two further objections to O2 concerning the ad, challenging the claim "3p texts" on the grounds that O2 did not charge per text message but by a fixed monthly fee, and also questioning whether "No daily limit" was misleading, because the offer was subject to a monthly limit.

On the first point the mobile company maintained that the "3p texts" claim was not misleading because the ad made it clear that the 'Bolt on' was available for a monthly package price. However the ASA disagreed and said the statement implied that the cost of each text was 3p (GBP0.03), regardless of whether the full monthly allowance was used.

On the challenge to the claim "No daily limit" O2 pointed out that consumers could use all of the text messages in one day if required. This was acceptable to the Authority, which did not object to the claim.

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