Cell C appealing 4Gs ASA ruling
The Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) said that Cell C is appealing the ruling which is forcing them to remove the 4Gs branding from all of their advertisements, but the deadline for removal expired yesterday.
In a ruling published last month the ASA instructed Cell C to remove all 4Gs branding from their advertising.
“Newspapers, Radio, TV and Magazine advertising had to be removed with immediate effect,” explained Cornè Koch, communications manager at the ASA. “Outdoor, pamphlets, posters, leaflets had to be removed within two weeks.”
Cell C subsequently applied for a two week extension to remove all their outdoor advertising, which was granted by the ASA.
“The fact that the respondent is ex facie compliant on all other media would suggest that it is approaching the ASA in a bona fide manner and with a genuine attempt to comply,” said the ASA ruling on the matter which was published last week.
According to the ruling on the extension, Cell C’s attorneys had submitted documents to prove that the logistics involved in removing the logo from all outdoor advertising warrants a two week extension.
MTN opposed the application for extension according to the ASA. “This request for an extension seems little more than an attempt to continue to exploit and gain further leverage from its misleading logo,” the ASA reported MTN as saying.
Despite the objection, Cell C was given until 4 November 2010 (yesterday) to remove any outdoor, pamphlet, poster, and leaflet advertising. Cell C confirmed that the deadline for the removal of the logo was midnight last night.
“The logo was removed from all of our billboards & print and electronic ads by the deadline,” said Cell C.
“Should Cell C be found to be in breach of the ruling (this is monitored by the complainants and not the ASA) further sanctions such as pre-clearance can be ordered by the ASA,” said Koch.
“Pre-clearance means that the advertiser could be sanctioned to have all their advertising pre-cleared with the Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA) prior to publication,” Koch added.
According to Koch the extent and duration of the pre-clearance period is determined by a number of factors, such as the amount of adverse rulings against the respondent and the actions the respondent took to ensure that the advertising ruled against was removed within the period.
The application for an extension on the removal of their outdoor advertising made it seem as though Cell C had conceded to the ASA ruling as the costs of putting up and removing advertising on the scale of their outdoor campaign is likely quite high.
This was a strange turn of events as Cell C promised to fight the ASA’s original ruling on the complaints lodged by MTN and Vodacom.
“We will appeal the ruling because we believe that this amounts to corporate bullying,” Cell C’s CEO Lars Reichelt said. “It is Cell C’s view that MTN and Vodacom lodged these complaints in an attempt to distract Cell C which has recently established a major competitive advantage in the marketplace.”
Reichelt also said that Vodacom didn’t comply with the instruction to remove their advertising making use of the word ‘broadband’ prior to the ASA ruling in favour of Vodacom’s appeal.
In the mean time, Cell C has submitted an appeal against the ruling of the ASA, Koch revealed.
According to Cell C they lodged their appeal on 20 October and Koch added that complainants (Vodacom, MTN, et al) have until today to provide a response to Cell C’s appeal.
“As soon as the period for response has lapsed a date will be set for the case to appear in front of the Advertising Industry Tribunal,” Koch said. “Until such time, Cell C has to conform with the decision by the ASA Directorate.”
Cell C appealing 4Gs ASA ruling << Comments and views
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