BSkyB in hot water over “misleading” advertising

Source: Technology Digital

Date :29/05/2008 10:02:29

An ad campaign run by BSkyB last year has come under fire from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after a complaint by BT describing it as “misleading and denigratory”.

The complaint by the telecoms giant refers to a Sky Talk advertising campaign, which stated: “Despite advertising price cuts, BT are giving eleven million customers a price rise today. Are you one of them? At Sky, we believe in real value, and fair and honest pricing – that’s why Sky customers can get call packages with Sky Talk that are a lot cheaper than either BT or Virgin Media, with no funny business.”

BT’s objection centred on the implication that it had intentionally misled customers with surreptitious increases in prices. Sky, however, countered these claims, indicating that BT had promoted price cuts in its own advertising campaign, but had introduced a number of price rises for millions of its customers, and it was perfectly reasonable for Sky to point that out.

Implicit attack

Nevertheless, the ASA has upheld BT’s complaint, indicating that Sky’s claim “went beyond a robust and objective price comparison and implicitly attacked BT’s business practices.

“We concluded that the ad was misleading in that respect and denigrated BT. The ad breached CAP Code clauses.”

No measures have been taken against Sky however, though the ASA has warned them against using a similar approach in the future.

May 29, 2008