Five complaints in respect of advertisements from four companies have been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) for breaching codes of practise.
The adverts, two from Eircom and one each from Meteor, Magnet and health website Fatigueanswers.com were found to breach the code on grounds relating to truthfulness, health, comparisons and availability.
A leaflet inserted in an Eircom telephone bill stated free unlimited calls to Meteor mobiles with an Eircom bundle.
However, the free calls are only available on a specific type of bundle package and no reference had been made to this in the advertisement.
The ASAI found the advert misleading, and said it must not run in its original format again.
A second Eircom advert on a cover wrap of the Metro freesheet featured a picture of an Eircom modem with the phrases “Hello Mobile! Ireland’s leading broadband now goes where you go” and “give yourself broadband when and where you need it”.
A footnote on the inside page of the cover wrap said the service is available in Dublin and Cork City.
The complaints committee said that in the absence of appropriate qualification they should not repeat the phrases “now goes where you go” and “when and where you need it” if coverage was restricted to specific geographic locations.
They also said the fact that the service was only available to existing customers signing up to a landline should be referenced in the advert.
A Meteor television advert with a voice-over saying “we’ll prove everyone saves, no catch” was found to be misleading because the basis on which the claim was made used assumptions as to consumers’ usage and the ASAI said these could not be substantiated. The company was told not to run the advert in its original format again.
A press advert by Fatigueanswers.com stated “over 1,000 people successfully recovered at our ME/CFS clinic” was challenged on the basis that the company could not substantiate the claim. The ASAI noted the reference to “1,000 successfully recovered” was to testimonials received by the advertisers and they did “not consider this response adequate substantiation for the absolute claim in the advert”.
An advert for telco Magnet featured a copy of a press article with the words “BT dumps small businesses” followed by text saying “Magnet Business won’t let you down! We care about small business”.
BT Ireland objected to the advert and the ASAI said while they acknowledged the statement “BT dumps small businesses” had been directly reported in a newspaper article, they considered the reproduction of a headline in the advert unfairly discredited the company’s business practice. On that basis, they said the advert must not run again in its current form.
A further nine complaints were not upheld. In total the ASAI received 14 complaints, eight from consumers and six from other firms.