Cell C CEO takes on ASA
Cell C is no stranger to advertising complaints, and since the launch of their new 21Mbps HSPA+ network, the operator has been on the receiving end of a number of Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) complaints.
The most notable complaints revolved around Cell C’s use of the term 4Gs and the company’s popular and humorous advertising campaign poking fun at Vodacom’s red re-branding campaign.
Cell C CEO Lars Reichelt discussed the merits of the rulings in a recent interview with Adlip, saying that ASA operates in a law-free environment where the defendants have no legal recourse.
According to Reichelt the “ASA is doing what the ASA feels is right”, adding that it is important and necessary to have an advertising authority. However, Reichelt feels that how the body operates needs to be examined.
Reichelt said that in other countries one has legal recourse against advertising authorities, but that this is not the case in South Africa. “The ASA operates in a law-free environment where they rule and whatever they say is the law. That needs to be reviewed.”
(Video courtesy of Adlip.co.za. Original video here)
ASA rulings
Reichelt said that he has extensive global experience in the mobile field, and that South Africa is getting a bit ‘nit-picky’ at times.
“We have to respect that they [ASA] are there and exist,” said Reichelt. “We certainly don’t try to do anything that is below the belt. We like to play above board and quite frankly a lot of the rulings we have seen are quite strange.”
On the subject of the ASA’s ruling on technical matters, Reichelt said that he ‘takes offence in a way’. “It is very difficult for anybody who is not technical to rule on something as difficult as advanced mobile telephone technology,” said Reichelt.
“In the latest ruling the ASA actually more or less said that physics are different in South Africa than the rest of the world. I don’t know where they get that from,” said Reichelt. “It gets very difficult and quite frankly a little bit irritating.”
Reichelt advised the advertising industry in South Africa to look at how advertising governance works in other countries and asking what the right way of doing it will be. “If you compare what is deemed misleading in this country [South Africa] to what is deemed misleading in Europe we are talking miles apart,” said Reichelt.
“I don’t think we have at any point tried to mislead the consumer in any way, shape or form,” said Reichelt. “What we are doing is to bring high speed Internet to a country that prior to us entering this market has seen no competition nor has it seen any movement on this front.”
Reichelt added that Cell C are world leaders when it comes to mobile broadband technologies, which benefits the consumer, and to nit-pick on small technical aspects as to whether 21.6Mbps speeds can be used on packaging and in advertisements is not constructive.
“Predominantly this nit-picking comes from the competition,” Reichelt concluded.
More videos from Adclip: Lars Reichelt on the mobile broadband race | Lars Reichelt on data Part 2
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