21-Jul-2011 10:07

Naughty, Naughty TalkTalk! Play Fair Guys….

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint brought by BT against TalkTalk for exaggerating a ‘savings’ claims it made in a TV advertisement.

The ASA confirmed that TalkTalk had misled viewers of the advert by clearly overstating the savings that customers might achieve.

The regulator said the TV adverts statement that clients could "Save over £140" was "surrounded by numerous question marks" and it was not clear that this was a question rather than a claim.

In response (and in truth a very weak response at that!) TalkTalk told the watchdog that the savings reference for its current customers was based on an "average total bill spend without being selective of certain charges or features".

TalkTalk maintained the ad was not misleading.

BT successfully won its argument on two points:-

Firstly: TalkTalk had exaggerated the savings that customers were likely to achieve by switching to them.

Secondly: that the savings claim was based on savings that had been achieved by customers who had already switched to TalkTalk, and not on the savings that could be achieved by the customers of other providers to whom the ad was addressed.

The ASA ruled that TalkTalk's ad "must not be shown again in its current form".

The ruling can be seen here: http://goo.gl/ddNyR


(Sources: asa.org.uk & The Register)