Virgin Media’s ‘5x Faster’ Ads Banned

Companies need to be responsible enough to ensure that their advertising claims are true, so that it does not mislead consumers into not getting what they thought they would. Well, it looks like Virgin Media is in the spotlight after falling foul of regulators in the U.K. Apparently, two of Virgin Media’s main rivals, BT and Sky, have filed a complain to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) concerning a recent ad campaign, citing that Virgin Media’s ads touched on misleading claims which cited download speeds that were “5x faster than Sky and BT’s regular broadband”.

That is a surefire way to touch a raw nerve for both Sky and BT, and BT claims that Virgin Media did not offer enough and complete information that could support such a claim. BT as well as Sky filed complaints concerning other ads which also made similar comparisons with their own services, and according to both ISPs, they were unanimous and united in mentioning that the ads made an “absolute claim which implied that all Virgin Media customers would be able ‘download 5x faster'”, pointing to it potentially misleading the befuddled consumer. Well, hopefully things will work out all right in the end for Virgin Media – perhaps they might want to be a wee bit more careful in their wording?

Edwin Kee
Categories: General
Tags: virgin media