Vodafone has been caught out for making unrealistic overclaims by the Advertising Standards Authority – with help from whichever eagle-eyed complainants (let’s take a guess at BT Broadband) reported it to the watchdog. In mounting its unsuccessful defence, Vodafone displayed a distinct lack of respect for its customers.
A TV and social media ad by Ogilvy – recently replaced by Leo Burnett on creative duties – has been banned for claiming that Vodafone’s technology and performance match that of BT, and for making the unsubstantiated claim that “millions of BT customers across the UK are realising they can switch to Vodafone and get the same broadband for less.”
Vodafone said that its campaign was all about educating consumers on how to save money and pay less for the same service. The telco judged that people “very often did not understand the technicalities of broadband services and ended up paying a lot more for negligible performance differences between providers.”
An Ofcom 2023 report was used as back-up, but the ASA wasn’t buying it and gave consumers more credit, saying that they would understand the term “the same broadband technology.”
The ad was banned for breaking a long list of rules, often more than once: breaching the BCAP Code, substantiation, comparison with identifiable competitors, price comparisons, and misleading consumers.
Vodafone had two ads banned in 2023, two in 2022 and two in 2021. Can they manage to keep it down to just the one this year, now that Leo Burnett is in charge? The agency’s first campaign featured an affable Roman Kemp in an ice cream van and restricted claims to non-committal ideas about “connecting” people and being “the nation’s network,” but they may be required to go into more controversial territory with a harder sell before too long.
