Vodacom's exclusive Opera Mini claims under fire
Consumer complaints were lodged against a radio commercial from Vodacom promoting its Opera Mini, the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) reported recently.
According to the ASA’s report, the voice-over in the commercial describes the product, and at the end of the commercial states “… Connect more, live more, with Opera Mini. Only from Vodacom.”
The ASA said that the complaints argued that the advertisement gives the impression that the Opera Mini browser is exclusive to Vodacom when that not the case.
One complainant said that the commercial is misleading as Opera Mini may be downloaded for free directly from Opera by anyone.
Opera also provides a co-branding service for network operators that allows operators to offer the Opera Mini browser with their branding and customisations built-in.
“No matter your strategy, Opera Mini will help you drive data traffic, increase ARPU [average revenue per user], introduce your solution across your customer base and provide the best user experience on any phone,” Opera’s website promises.
Vodacom has such a co-branded version of Opera Mini available to their customers, named Vodafone Opera Mini.
The advertising agency Draft FCB responded to the complaint on behalf of Vodacom and explained that an oversight resulted in the browser not being correctly referred to as “Vodafone Opera Mini.”
Vodafone Opera Mini is an exclusive and licensed version of the Opera Mini browser, Draft FCB said.
They added that for the most part the radio commercials refer to the browser as Vodafone Opera Mini, but the claim that the browser is exclusively available from Vodacom unfortunately omits to qualify the browser as such.
Vodacom undertook not to use the commercial in future and the ASA directorate accepted it without considering the merits of the matter.
According to the ASA directorate the implication of the undertaking is that the commercial will presumably end off with “… Connect more, live more, with the Vodafone Opera Mini. Only from Vodacom.”
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