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ASA Advertising & Media

Orange Monkey pay-as-you-go advert banned by ASA

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

August 31, 2011 | 3 min read

An advert for the Monkey pay-as-you-go mobile tariff from Orange has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for misleading customers.

The advert said "Welcome to Monkey, the pay-as-you-go music service from Orange and 4 Music. That brings you the music you love, free and straight to your mobile. Simply dial in from your handset to listen to the latest tracks from all your favourite artists and check out our ready to go playlists." At the same time, on-screen text stated "247".

The voice-over continued "It couldn't be easier. You get free music, free internet and unlimited texts, all for just £5 ..." Large on-screen text stated "free music. free internet. unlimited texts. all for £5". Smaller on-screen text stated "Min top up £5. Unlimited texts cost £5 ...".

A complaint was made after a customer topped up their phone with more than £5 but said that they had not received free internet or unlimited texts.

Everything Everywhere said the Orange ad made it clear that customers would need to dial "247" from their Orange mobile phone to hear specially selected playlists. They explained that, in order to access the free internet, which lasted a month, customers needed to collect their free daily internet pass by launching the internet page on their phone, linking to their branded landing page called 'Orange World', which contained a button for customers to add the free service to their account. They said information about accessing the free internet was found in the terms and conditions for the Monkey plan on their website.

In relation to the unlimited texts, they explained that customers could purchase a bundle of unlimited texts, which would last for a month, by texting them from their phone and activating the package. They said that they would then deduct £5 of credit and apply the bundle of unlimited texts to their phone.

The ASA concluded that since the advert did not direct customers towards the website for the information on receiving the free internet service, and did not make clear that the customer had to take further steps from topping up their phones, it breaded the CAP code and was misleading and exaggerated.

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