O2 ad banned over unclear data allowance
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned an O2 advert after viewers complained it included misleading information about data allowance.
The ad, which ran appeared in both an in-flight magazine and on the mobile internet site for O2, depicted information relating to data usage whilst abroad.
Two complainants challenged whether the ads were misleading because they led viewers to believe that the claim "A day's data for £1.99" was accurate, when they understood the charge was per 15 megabytes of data and not per day.
O2 said that it accepted that there was an oversight on its or their agencies part and that the ad did not include a reference to the daily 15 megabytes limit on O2 Travel. However, a new version of the ad had now been created which included that 15 megabyte limit.
The communications company added that it was confident that the use of the features included in the ad could be achieved using the 15 megabyte data allowance and that depending on the phone (and the size of the photo) they could send between five and 15 photographs per day within the 15 megabyte limit.
However, the ASA ruled that the ad was both misleading and exaggerated and as such must not appear in its current form.