A Virgin Media ad campaign featuring Usain Bolt has been banned after complaints from rivals BT and Sky.
It is the second Virgin Media campaign featuring Bolt to be banned, after the Advertising Standards Authority ruled in July 2012 that the cable firm could not deliver on a promise relating to superfast broadband.
This year’s campaign, which ran across TV, press and on the Virgin Media website, featured Usain Bolt dressed up as different members of a family, including a grandfather, baby and mother, who says her favourite athlete is Mo Farah.
The first complaint was made by BT, which complained to the ASA about the claim “you’ll be able to download five times faster than BT’s regular broadband”.
BT argued that the web page referred to in the Virgin Media ad did not provide sufficient information to verify the comparison.
The second complaint was made by BT and Sky, arguing that Virgin Media’s claim about its speed was misleading, as it implied that all customers would always be able to “download five times faster” than its rivals’ broadband customers. They argued was not the case, as the claim was based on average speeds.
In its defence against the first complaint, Virgin Media said that the web page referred to in the ads relied on up-to-date data, which included information on the average speeds of its service at peak time and over 24 hours. The website also provided Ofcom data on broadband speeds of its competitors.
Defending itself against the second complaint, Virgin Media argued that the claim “download five times faster than Sky and BT’s regular broadband” would not be understood to be an absolute figure, as the small print in the ad made clear the circumstances in which consumers would be able to download five times faster.
Virgin Media said the claim was made on peak-time speeds of its superfast up to 50Mb and up to 100Mb services, which were more than five times faster than its rivals.
The ASA ruled against Virgin Media over both complaints.
Regarding the first complaint, the ASA said that Virgin Media did not provide enough information on its website about its speeds, adding that it should have provided consumers with details of its methodology. The ASA concluded “the information provided was not sufficient to ensure the details of the comparison could be verified”.
In the second case, the ASA ruled that the claim “download five times faster than Sky and BT’s regular broadband” was misleading, as it was not in “conditional language” and implied that Virgin’s superfast broadband service was always five times faster than its rivals, which was not always the case. It said the ad should have made it clear that the claim was based on an average, and not an absolute figure.
The ASA banned the ad from appearing again in its current form.
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