ASA Adjudication on Cable Guys Electrical Engineering Ltd

Ad

A radio ad for Cable Guys Electrical Engineering said "This is Arthur Analogue: Oh I can't go on anymore, I can't pick anything up. I'm so old." A second character then said "Have no fear Derek Digital is here." The first voice asked "Are you here to save me, Derek Digital?" to which the second voice replied "Not quite Arthur, I'm making you extinct." The voice-over then said "With the digital switchover on its way, time is up for your analogue aerial. So get set to go digital, call the Cable Guys now ...".

Issue

One listener challenged whether the ad was misleading because it wrongly implied that a digital aerial would be required in order to receive digital broadcasts.

BCAP Radio Code

Response

Cable Guys Electrical Engineering said that there was a great deal of public confusion about digital technology and its terminology. They argued this made it difficult to produce advertising that was both understandable and technically correct. They acknowledged the ad may have caused confusion for some listeners but said it was not their intention to imply that all analogue aerials must be changed as part of the digital switchover. They argued that the claim "... time is up for your analogue aerial ..." referred to complete analogue TV systems, from aerial to television, which would need at least one element of digital reception equipment added to make digital reception possible. They advised that they had instructed the radio station not to broadcast the ad again.

Global Radio said the ad was written with the intention of creating amusement around the topic of digital switchover. They argued that the two characters Arthur Analogue and Derek Digital were representative of each of the technologies and therefore the voice-over "... time is up for your analogue aerial ..." was a reference to analogue technology generally and not a specific component. They did not believe the ad would mislead.

Assessment

Upheld

We noted that both Cable Guys Electrical Engineering and Global Radio viewed the claim "... time is up for your analogue aerial ..." as a reference to the phasing out of analogue systems. However, we considered the claim would be understood by listeners to mean that an aerial which was currently being used to receive an analogue signal would need to be replaced in order for digital signals to be received. Because this was not the case we considered the claim "... time is up for your analogue aerial ..." was misleading.

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) Radio Advertising Standards Code Section 2 rule 3.1 (Misleadingness)

Action

The ad must not be broadcast again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)