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ASA Virgin Media

Virgin Media Broadband online advert and website banned by ASA

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

June 29, 2011 | 2 min read

A website and online banner advert for Virgin Media has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority.

The ASA received two complaints about www.stopthebroadbandcon.org which allowed customers to sign a petition and share through social networking to others, and parodied an advert for Sky TV.

The website headlined ‘Stop the Broadband Con!’ called on the ASA to stop misleading broadband adverts and also carried a quote from owner Richard Branson in which he said that some internet providers were failing to keep their promises over broadband speeds.

The site also included claims such as: “Ofcom found Virgin Media broadband is twice as fast as other providers ... ”

The banner advert included the headline “Not getting the broadband speed you’re paying for?” and included text that read “Stop the broadband con” and linked to the corresponding website.

Both BSkyB and British Telecoms challenged the claims made by the campaign including the Ofcom claim.

Virgin Media defended the campaign, saying that there was ‘widespread dissatisfaction among consumers’ around advertised broadband speeds and said that the use of the title "stop the broadband con" of a ‘punchy’ description of the issue at hand. It also cited an Ofcom report on broadband speeds within its response.

However, the ASA upheld the complaints on eight different counts including misleading information and the ad and website should not appear again in their current form, while all comparative claims in future adverts should me made clear and that marketing material should also not discredit or denigrate other marketers.

ASA Virgin Media

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