ASA Adjudication on British Telecommunications plc

Ad

A national press ad for BT fibre optic broadband showed a burst of light. Large text in the middle of the light burst stated “BT Infinity The birth of the instant internet”. Text next to the light burst stated “Upload and share high quality photos and videos instantly; Download your favourite music instantly; Enjoy multiple websites and online content instantly; Stream HD movies and TV shows instantly”. Text at the bottom of the ad next to the BT logo stated “New fibre optic broadband BT”.

Issue

Four complainants challenged whether the use of the word "instantly" was misleading because they understood that while BT Infinity might be faster than other broadband services, there would still be some delays to the service.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

British Telecommunications plc (BT) said the headline claim "Instant internet" was a reference to the time it would take a user to get online. They said because their fibre optic broadband allowed users to do that in less than a few seconds, they did not believe this claim was problematic.

BT said customers using their fibre optic broadband could upload a 6Mb photo in five seconds, upload a 9Mb video in eight seconds and download a 6Mb song in three seconds. They said their service could also support access to multiple websites such as facebook.com and bbc.co.uk simultaneously, even when customers were using the service to perform other bandwidth intensive tasks such as playing games online. They said streaming HD content such as from BBC iPlayer could take between three and four seconds to start and would then stream constantly. They submitted a video of audio and video being streamed through several devices simultaneously to illustrate this.

BT believed consumers would know that the word "instant" did not mean the complete absence of any delay or zero seconds, especially in the context of broadband and the internet, but argued that consumers who did not already have a fibre optic service would understand the ad to mean that that technology would result in much faster upload and download times than they were used to. BT submitted three customer profiles which they believed supported this view. They pointed out that the terms "instant" and "instantly" were used in a number of industries to describe products that were not delivered instantly, such as instant coffee and instant hair removal cream. They did not believe consumers would feel misled if they knew the speeds offered by their fibre optic broadband.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA considered that consumers would understand the claims "Upload and share high quality photos and videos instantly", "Download your favourite music instantly", "Enjoy multiple websites and online content instantly" and "Stream HD movies and TV shows instantly", as well as "The birth of the instant internet", to mean that BTs fibre optic broadband could deliver the listed activities straightaway, or with no noticeable delay.

We noted that BT had provided a list of the times they believed it would take to complete the activities stated in the ad, using their fibre optic broadband. However, we also noted that we had not seen evidence that substantiated those times, or that showed what speeds could be achieved by customers using BTs fibre optic broadband, and that those speeds would be achievable by customers at times of high user demand and with non-optimal computer set-ups.

We noted the three customer profiles and two videos submitted by BT, however, we did not consider that profiles and testimonials alone were sufficient to substantiate claims relating to the speed of a broadband service. Because we had not seen evidence to support the claims made in the ad, we concluded that it was misleading.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation) and 7.1 (Truthfulness).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)