Complaints made against Vodafone adverts

The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld three complaints made against recent advertising campaigns from Vodafone.

The ads in question related to the ISPs mobile broadband service and included the headline; 'The fastest, most reliable mobile broadband in the galaxy. Only £15 a month'. T-Mobile, 3G and an unnamed member of the public all submitted their complaints based on the argument that Vodafone should not be claiming to be the fast mobile broadband operator. The other included phrase: 'mobile broadband that's light years ahead' was said to be misleading.

When investigating the complaints LCC International provided the ASA with test results in an attempt to ascertain whether Vodafone's adverts had any backing. Analysis of the test data found that other mobile broadband providers provided a faster service for downloading a page in six out of ten regions. Test run in homes were not included into the data.

In response the ASA has told Vodafone broadband that all future advertising of this nature should clearly point out the reference of the claim.