ASA Adjudication on Nomi-Call Ltd

Ad

A magazine ad for SIM cards was headed “*Free Weekend Calls to South Africa with nomi”. Text stated “Talk for free on Saturdays*”. The asterisk was linked to a footnote that stated “The promotion will only apply to calls made between 10AM and 11AM on Saturdays using SIMS which have some credit and have been topped up by at least a single payment or voucher of £5 or more during the preceding seven days.”

Issue

The complainant challenged whether the ad was misleading, because although the headline text stated "*Free Weekend Calls to South Africa..." the footnote stated that the promotion applied to calls made between 10 and 11am on Saturdays only.

CAP Code

Response

Nomi-Call Ltd said they did not consider the ad misleading because there was a clear asterisk before the word "Free" that alerted the reader to the limitations on the promotion. They said those limitations were set out clearly at the bottom of the ad in a footnote and the wording of the footnote was accurate.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted the headline claim stated "*FREE Weekend Calls to South Africa" but the body copy stated "*Talk for free on Saturdays". In addition, we noted the footnote stated that those calls were free only between 10am and 11am on Saturdays using SIMS that had been topped up by a single payment of at least £5 during the preceding seven days.  Because the terms and conditions were so restrictive, and the free calls were available for one hour on Saturday morning only,  we considered the footnote contradicted rather than clarified the headline claim. We therefore concluded the ad was misleading.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 and 7.2 (Truthfulness).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)