ASA Finds Nothing Wrong in Virgin’s Ads
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) did not find anything objectionable in the recent advert run by Virgin Media in the national press. Sky had raised some concerns about the content of the advert.
The Virgin Media ad has endorsed its fibre optic broadband claiming that it is “future proof” and that it has been “designed with the internet in mind”. The ad has also compared fibre optic services with that of copper wire saying that providers using copper wire fail to offer a service characterized by “low signal attenuation, low signal interference and high data-carrying capacity” to customers. Sky, incidentally, is a provider that uses copper wires.
Sky’s complaint to the ASA was based on the grounds that Virgin had no right to claim that its services were better than those offered by its competitors. Sky also objected to Virgin’s use of the phrase “future proof” to describe its product, which cannot be proven conclusively.
Sky also pointed out that development of fibre optics took place much before the advent of the internet and hence claiming that use of fibre optics in internet services is “designed with the internet in mind” is wrong.
The ASA was of the view that Virgin’s ad can be perceived as pinpointing benefits of using optic fibre in place of ADSL copper wire for providing internet services rather than criticizing competitors and their technology. The ASA rejected Sky’s complaint on this basis.
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