iBurst in hot water about speed claims
The Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) recently ruled that iBurst may not use the claim that you can “Replace your dial-up [with]… iBurst up to 17x faster!”
The ASA found that “There is nothing before the Directorate to confirm that a significant number of people can achieve this speed under reasonable circumstances” and ruled that iBurst must withdraw its claims with immediate effect and that it may not be used again in that format.
Mr. Michael van Dijk submitted that these claims still appear in many mediums, including television, the Vodacom website and the company’s own website.
iBurst argued that they have taken all reasonable steps to comply with the ASA ruling and that their amended advertisements do not contain these claims.
The ASA directorate was not convinced, saying that the company only tried to rectify the advertisements two weeks after the initial ruling was made. It further said that no explanation was given as to why the advertising on the iBurst website was not changed sooner and questioned why the company only withdraw its television advertising after a new campaign was ready.
In light of the above, the Directorate found that iBurst did not timeously adhere to the ASA ruling and that they are therefore in breach of the Procedural Guide.
The complainants will now be afforded 10 days to comment on whether they think sanctions are necessary against iBurst, after which iBurst will have a chance to state their case. This may result in sanctions against iBurst.
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