Virgin Media has got its own back on BT by successfully getting
the Advertising Standards Authority to force BT to pull a broadband
ad.
Earlier this year,
BT successully went to the ASA over Virgin claims on broadband
speeds.
This time, Virgin went to the ASA complaining about a BT ad
which claimed BT had been named as the "Best performing Broadband
provider, again", among leading UK ISPs.
The small print in the ad, however, pointed out the performance
benchmark was measured among ADSL broadband providers.
As Virgin is a cable modem broadband provider and ISP which does
not use ADSL technology, it complained to the ASA that it could not
be included in the benchmark tests.
As Virgin was a major UK ISP and broadband provider, the advert
was misleading, claimed Virgin. The ASA upheld the complaint.
BT must now pull the ad or modify it by qualifying its claims
more prominently.
The ASA said, "The ad must not appear again in its current form.
We told BT to ensure that future ads featuring a "Best Performing
Broadband" type claim should be immediately qualified by the term
'ADSL', if the claim was specific to ADSL broadband."