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back to article Ad watchdog terminates Vodafone's cherry-picked 'unbeatable connecting calls' claims

Blighty's ad watchdog has given Vodafone a ticking off following a complaint from rival carrier Three, which successfully challenged the firm's "unbeatable at connecting calls" claims. A press and website advert were found to have cherry-picked locations across the UK to support Voda's assertion that it was "unbeatable" at …

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  1. raving angry loony
    Pirate

    Yet again.

    In other words, yet again a company got away with misleading advertising. Probably managed to get their lies up against enough eyeballs that it won't matter if they pull them now. Unless and until there are FINES associated with these findings, these "rulings" are nothing more than a bad joke.

    14 0 Reply
    1. Kevin Johnston
      Reply Icon

      Re: Yet again.

      Said before that fines are meaningless, the one thing that would make these companies/Ad agencies behave is a ban on ANY advertising for a period based on how long the offending Ad was available. This would include Radio/TV and even Poster sites and sponsored people/vehicles etc.

      THAT is how you get them to take notice.

      11 0 Reply
      1. SImon Hobson Bronze badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Yet again.

        I disagree, the best penalty in these sorts of cases would be a requirement to run a series of adverts with the same conspicuity* stating that their previous advert was held to be false (ie a lie).

        * That means, if it was on TV then the apology must be on TV (same channels, similar timeslots); if it was on the front of a paper then the apology must be on the front of the same paper. None of this retraction in small print in the corner of page 42 that's normally covered by the reader's thumb, or on a channel no-one watches at 3am.

        I liked the one where Apple had to apologise to Samsung on it's UK website, the judge dismissed their initial "non-apology" and told them to do it properly, and then the judge dismissed their blatant attempts to make sure no-one saw it - on pain of issuing a bench warrant for the arrest of senior UK execs !

        Now that's how a retraction should be done.

        4 0 Reply
      2. raving angry loony
        Reply Icon

        Re: Yet again.

        "Fines are meaningless"...

        Not if the fine is a multiple of the profits as opposed to the meaningless sums usually touted. As in, if they lose enough money when caught, they might start considering it's not worth doing it. Corporations only respect money. I say take that money away from them when they don't respect the law. Take A LOT of it away from them, so that it's not profitable to get caught - even if they only get caught 1% of the time.

        0 0 Reply
  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fines are not enough

    Fraud is a fraud. Treat it as such.

    Every mobile network has a set of very detailed call success stats per geography. In 2G they also have the distance to the handset at the moment of call setup (from timing advance) and in 3/4G they may have some additional approximate info on its position. So they know very well that their call setup rates and call drop rates in parts of Cambridgeshire and even in Cambridge itself are under 60%. They also know very well that Three has better stats in the same areas.

    Many other parts of the UK are no different.

    The data they presented did not fit reality in the name of marketing. This frankly, should fall under a different part of the penal code. Yeah, I know - not like it will ever happen.

    3 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Fines are not enough

      Most of that timing data isn't kept,plus you need to triangulate and interpret based on coverage stats and probably.

      The tech is there (I'm assessing it for 4G,but not everyone uses it cos it's damn expensive.

      0 0 Reply
  3. TheProf

    Advertising credo

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZUmAbi0Vm4

    We need a song icon!

    0 0 Reply
  4. Your alien overlord - fear me

    Well, since I've been booted of Wikipedia (obviously shum misteak at their end) , does any mob operator want to pay me to say that I can make and answer phone calls. Obviously I'll need a limo to take me to Wales,NI,Scotland most of the south of England. Oh, and a nice new phone wouldn't go amiss either !!!! Any takers ?

    1 1 Reply
  5. lsces

    Coverage DOWN!

    A little honesty on just what Vodafone can actually do today would be nice. Despite being promised for YEARS that 'coverage will be improved this year', we are no longer able to get 3G in areas around here where it used to be possible OUT OF DOORS! Isn't it about time we got a refund for all the time that we are not able to access the service we are paying for? The idea of roaming freely to other providers is apparently of little use ... they have pulled transmitters to save money as well ... so compensation for not meeting advertising claims?

    0 1 Reply

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