ASA Adjudication on Vodafone Ltd

Ad

Two national press ads for Vodafone's mobile broadband.

a. The first ad was headlined "The fastest, most reliable mobile broadband in the galaxy. Only £15 a month". Text underneath stated "Leap into hyperdrive. With Vodafone's mobile broadband you get download speeds of up to 7.2Mbps on your laptop, which is as quick as most home broadband. It's also super reliable. Simply plug in the compact USB stick modem and get online straight away. Call 08080 XXX XXX today to enjoy mobile broadband that's light years ahead ...".

b. The second ad had identical text except the claim "Don't get left behind" replaced the claim "Leap into hyperdrive".

Issue

1. Hutchison 3G UK Ltd and T-Mobile (UK) Ltd challenged whether the claim "most reliable mobile broadband" could be substantiated.

2. T-Mobile and a member of the public challenged whether Vodafone could substantiate that they offered the "fastest" mobile broadband.

3. T-Mobile challenged whether the claim "mobile broadband that's light years ahead" misleadingly implied that Vodafone's mobile broadband was vastly superior to all other mobile broadband services.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

1. & 2. Vodafone said the claim to offer the fastest and most reliable mobile broadband was supported by an Independent Network Benchmarking Trial carried out by LCC International.

They sent details of the LCC trial. They understood that it would take a minimum of six months for any of their competitors to make improvements to their networks that would in any way undermine the results of the LCC trial.

3. Vodafone said the claim "mobile broadband that's light years ahead" was not intended to be a superiority claim, but to fit with the overall creative which featured a USB stick as a rocket. They believed the image of the rocket combined with the line "Mobile broadband that's light years ahead" linked the product benefit to the visual image.

Vodafone said, even if the claim was seen to imply that Vodafone's mobile broadband was dramatically different, they believed the LCC trial results would support that claim.

Assessment

The ASA noted the trial by LCC was based on both mobile phone use and data card use. The trial tested the speed and reliability of file downloads and web page loading and was undertaken across the UK in a number of different locations, such as airports, hotels and motorway service stations; reliability was based on the percentage of MP3 files successfully downloaded for File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and the percentage of web pages successfully downloaded for HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and speed was based on the time taken to download a reference web page using HTTP and a reference file using FTP. We noted Vodafone had based their claims on the nationwide averages for those criteria.  

We noted the LCC data had not been tested in the home, where we understood some users would operate the service.  We also noted networks had not been tested an equal number of times for each test. We noted that, in six out of the 10 regions of the UK tested, one of the other networks had a faster average time to download a web page than Vodafone.

1. Upheld

We considered that, without qualification, readers would not know the basis of the claim "most reliable mobile broadband" and could understand it to refer to the nationwide coverage of the network, the number of times the service cut out once connected, the ability to initially connect to the service or the ability to fully download all types of files or web pages.

We acknowledged that Vodafone might be able to provide the most reliable service based on the nationwide average of the criteria LCC had tested, but we considered that, because the ads did not make clear the basis of the claims, it would not be clear to readers how the claims had been measured. We concluded therefore that the ads were misleading.  

On this point, the ads breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness), 19.1 (Other comparisons).

2. Upheld

We considered that readers would be used to definitions of conventional broadband speed in terms of download speeds and, in the absence of any qualification, were likely to understand the "fastest" claim, particularly in conjunction with the claim "With Vodafone's mobile broadband you get download speeds of up to 7.2Mbps on your laptop, which is as quick as most home broadband", as an absolute claim that implied it was not possible to obtain a mobile broadband connection in the UK that permitted a faster maximum download speed than Vodafone's service. Because we understood from the LCC trial that another mobile broadband provider offered an up to 7.2Mbps service, we concluded that the absolute claim to offer the 'fastest' maximum download speed for mobile broadband service in the UK was misleading.

On this point, the ads breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness), 19.1 (Other comparisons).

3. Upheld

We noted the ads included images of the USB stick as a 'rocket' in space. We considered, however, that readers were likely to interpret the claim "mobile broadband that's light years ahead" as a superiority claim based on the criterion stated in the ad: the "fastest" and "most reliable" mobile broadband service. We considered that, for the reasons stated in points 1 and 2, the claims "fastest" and "most reliable" mobile broadband service were misleading. We concluded that, because readers would understand it was based on both the speed and reliability of the Vodafone service, and because we had not seen evidence to support those claims, the claim "mobile broadband that's light years ahead" was misleading.

On this point, the ads breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness), 19.1 (Other comparisons).

Action

The ads must not appear again in their current form. We told Vodafone to make clear the basis of their claims in future.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)