Jump to content
The Inquirer-Home

Vodafone falls foul of advertising watchdog

Spoke too fast
Friday, 12 September 2008, 11:03

THE UK ADVERTISING Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a recent radio advert by mobile phone company Vodafone, saying the advert read out the legal terms and conditions of the services too fast.

A listener complained that the advert contains a 30-word disclaimer recorded in woman’s voice which is read in eight seconds.

The ASA told the company to withdraw the commercial as soon as possible, as it may mislead the listeners.

Vodafone claimed it had not sped up the woman's voice and its pace is quite similar to that of the voices in other similar ads; moreover, it has also maintained that their advertisement is neither deceptive nor is it violating advertising rules.

It pointed out that the radio advertising code doesn’t define the exact speed at which the legal terms can be broadcast. In fact you could probably play them backwards and you would not be breaking code. µ

Share this:

Comments
Hehe

Heard this on the news yesterday... bloody hilarious!

Apparently Vodaphone said it is her normal speaking speed!


posted by : krs, 12 September 2008 Complain about this comment
lol

an add here on the radio has a 15 second fine print, its spoken by a man, and is so fast you cant inderstand him, and he didnt take 1 breath when he read it back which amazed me even more!

I totally understand this and Im glad you have a law that specifies the length and speed. Im not sure if the do it here in Oz, but I should check as this one im talking about here is so much, ill see if its on youtube yet.

posted by : Stewart , 12 September 2008 Complain about this comment
Advertisement
Subscribe to the INQ Newsletter
Sign-up for the INQBot weekly newsletter
Click here to sign up Existing user
Advertisement
INQ Poll

Browsers

Who will win the next round of browser wars?