ASA bans Vodafone’s Sure Signal device advertisements

The Advertising Standards Agency has recently banned advertisements relating to the Sure Signal device from Vodafone, following complaints that were made by rival providers.

The advertising watchdog in the UK, the Advertising Standards Agency, has recently placed a ban on poster advertisements that were advertising the Sure Signal device from Vodafone after complaints were made by rival providers stating that the advertisements were misleading.

The poster claimed that the Vodafone device made the operator the only one that could guarantee a mobile signal indoors, and showed a person that was struggling to get a signal and leaning out of a window whilst advertising the Sure Signal device, which is a box that uses a home broadband connection to improve the 3G signal.

However, complaints were made by rival providers O2 and T-Mobile, which claimed that the poster adverts by Vodafone did not make it clear that in order to use the device consumers would need to have a 3G enabled phone as well as a home broadband connection. The rival firms also said that Vodafone could not guarantee a signal as was claimed in the advertisement.

The ASA said that “because Vodafone did not control the availability and performance of the broadband connection, the claim to ‘guarantee’ a signal was unsubstantiated and likely to mislead.” It also said that “the omission of a statement that a 3G handset and broadband were required to use [Sure Signal] was likely to mislead”.

Despite arguments from Vodafone in defense of the advertisement the ASA concluded “Because it was not clear that Vodafone were promoting a new product, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead.”

Source – Guardian