Cell C nails MTN in ongoing battle
Cell C has forced MTN to pull its advertising campaign for international calls with MTN Zone after they lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA).
The MTN print advertisement stated that “Free international calls with MTN Zone, because nothing beats Mahala…Get up to 100% Mahala discounts on MTN international call rates to over 200 countries.”
Cell C argued that international calls on MTN are not free, highlighting the following limitations on the MTN Zone international calling discounts:
- The discount varies between 10% and 100%
- It is only available between 6am to 6pm on weekdays
- If you do get a 100% discount, it is only valid for the first hour of the call
- Only some countries will ever reach the 100% discount and it is not clear what countries these are
- The countries which can reach the 100% discount will vary
- The MTN Zone International Discounts are not available to MTN Call Per Second, MTN OneRate, MTN Muziq, MTN TopUp and MTN Contract customers.
MTN circumvented a fight by committing to amend the advertisement and promised to ensure that there is no possibility of confusion in the minds of its consumers and the public.
The ASA has a long standing principle which holds that where an advertiser provides an unequivocal undertaking to withdraw or amend its advertising in a manner that addresses the concerns raised, that undertaking is accepted without considering the merits of the matter.
MTN Zone Mahala international calls
This complaint from Cell C follows an earlier complaint from MTN against Cell C, where the ASA has ruled in favour of MTN’s complaints against radio and TV advertisements by Cell C that are said to poke fun at the yellow network’s “MTN Zone” product.
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