Cell C sidesteps sanctions
Cell C has received suspended sanctions by the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) after its advertising was found to contravene the ASA’s procedural guide.
On 3 September 2012, the ASA directorate ruled that two Cell C advertisements – a radio commercial and a television commercial – disparaged MTN’s products.
Cell C appealed these rulings, but the Advertising Industry Tribunal (“AIT”) dismissed both appeals on 9 May 2013.
MTN asked the ASA directorate to impose the sanctions against Cell C, arguing that Cell C specifically targeted MTN in its advertising campaigns.
MTN further said that Cell C had more than one adverse ruling against it in a period of 12 months, which justifies sanctions.
Cell C responded saying it has worked extremely hard at producing advertising that is compliant with the ASA Code.
The ASA imposed a sanction on Cell C to submit all its future advertising to the ACA Advisory Service for a period of six months, at its own cost and prior to publication thereof.
However, the ASA suspended this sanction, provided that Cell C is not found guilty of disparaging advertising in the six month period following the date of this ruling.
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