Virgin Media ad banned by Advertising Standards Authority

by Becky Wilkerson, marketingmagazine.co.uk 09-Apr-09, 11:40

LONDON - Virgin Media has been forced to withdraw a press ad for its broadband service after Sky challenged its accuracy.

Virgin’s advertising claimed that ‘Only 3 out of 10 homes in the UK can get 8mb or more over BT phone lines’, while ‘10 out of 10 homes with Virgin Media’s fibre optic broadband could get 20Mb’. Sky claimed this was misleading as it did not believe there was sufficient capacity in Virgin’s network to provide all customers with 20mb at the same time.

Virgin Media said its advertising referred to the fibre optic network’s ability to provide an access line speed of 20Mb to all customers at the same time and a qualification in terms of actual throughput speed had been made in the footnote.

The Advertising Standards Authority said the ad was likely to be understood by consumers to refer to the actual speeds achieved by cable broadband users in the home, rather than the potential speed of Virgin's cable network. It therefore stated that the ad did breach its code and that it should not appear again in its current form.