Virgin Media has fallen foul of the UK’s advertising watchdog after making inaccurate claims about the coverage of its broadband network.
The cable company posted two separate circulars, one of which stated “over 80 per cent of your neighbourhood is connected”, while the other told recipients: “We’re in your neighbourhood and didn’t want you to miss out.”
Responding to a complaint, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) declared that the first of these statements was misleading because it suggested four-fifths of people living in the chosen area had already subscribed to broadband from Virgin Media.
In reality, the internet service provider meant that up to 80 per cent of local properties would be able to sign up.
Similarly, the second ad was branded “misleading” by the ASA for implying that the reader’s street was served by the Virgin Media network, rather than being part of a wider coverage area in which some households could not be connected.
“We told Virgin Media Ltd not to make claims that implied a specific proportion of consumers or area was connected to their services when that was not the case,” the regulator explained.