ASA Adjudication on Mercury Telecom Ltd

Ad

A direct mailing for Mercury Telecom Ltd was sent to businesses in the form of an invoice. Text in the middle of the mailing stated "Invoice summary for call charges ... service charges ... VAT at 17.5% ...". The charge for each service was £0.00. Text at the bottom of the mailing stated "Thank you for paying by Direct Debit. Payment will be collected on or after 3rd September 2007 ... INVOICE Invoice No: 013787".

Issue

One complainant, who was not a customer of Mercury Telecom Ltd, challenged whether the mailing was misleading because it did not make clear that it was advertising material.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Mercury Telecom Ltd (Mercury) said the direct mailing was meant to inform the recipient that the benefit of using Mercury Telecom might be an invoice for a line rental of £0.00. They said the mailing was followed up two days later with a letter explaining the nature of the first contact. Mercury said they would not be using that marketing approach again and apologised if consumers had found the ad confusing or misleading.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted the ad aimed to inform consumers about the benefits of Mercury's line rental prices. We also noted the charge for each service itemised on the bill was £0.00 and that the nature of the contact was explained to consumers in a follow up letter or phone call.  We welcomed Mercury's assurance that the direct mailing would not be used again in the future. Nevertheless, because we considered that the invoice had not been clearly identified as advertising material anywhere on the mailing, we concluded that the ad was misleading.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 6.1 (Honesty), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 22.1 (Recognising marketing communications and identifying marketers).

Action

We reminded Mercury that clause 22.1 of the CAP Code stated "Marketers ... should ensure that marketing communications are designed and presented in such a way that it is clear they are marketing communications". We advised them to contact the CAP Copy Advice team for guidance on preparing future ads.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)