MTN Data – Everywhere You Go
A recent MTN data advertising campaign states, inter alia, “HSDPA, 3G, EDGE and GPRS capable – always connected at the fastest available speed”. Their pay-off line “everywhere you go” appears at the bottom of the advertisement.
A complaint was lodged with the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) by David P Sullivan, saying that the advertisement is misleading as the respondent is unable to deliver what it promises in the advertisement.
Sullivan submitted that the payoff suggests MTN’s data products operate “Everywhere you go”, which is not true. The complainant further said that the reference to the connection at the “fastest available speed” is misleading as several of the respondent’s competitors have products that connect at faster speeds in the complainant’s area.
MTN responded saying that the ‘everywhere you go’ is a marketing pay-off line that was conceived and is used to express an emotional desire to be a life time partner to consumers as they progress through their life stages. “That is an attitudinal statement, not a functional one,” stated MTN in their defense.
The ASA found that the “everywhere you go” line appears at the bottom of the page together with the MTN logo and since it is used in isolation and is not associated with the product on offer it is not misleading.
The ASA further found that the claim, “always connected at the fastest available speed”, is not in comparison to any other service provider or other technologies which provide internet access.
The ASA hence found that the claim is not misleading and the complaint was subsequently dismissed.
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