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This article is more than 1 year old

Full-fibre ISP Hyperoptic clocked over mock doc schlock shock

Advert looked too much like a BT contract, says watchdog

Fibre ISP Hyperoptic has been slammed by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for releasing an advert that looked like an official contract from BT.

The promotion was received by consumers in February 2017, and was addressed to the "resident". Text on the back page stated "Your BT CONTRACT is about to cost you even more..." and appeared to be in the form of a contract.

It cited a reference number, membership number and a subhead. An image overlaying the "contract" read: "BREAK FREE & BEAT THE PRICE RISE."

Small print at the foot of the page said: "PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS NOT GENUINE [sic] A BT CONTRACT, OBVIOUSLY."

Inevitably, BT failed to see the funny side and challenged whether the ad really was obviously identifiable as a marketing communication.

The ASA agreed, saying that the text was too small and not sufficiently prominent to make it clear that the circular was a marketing communication and concluded that it breached advertising codes.

"The ad must not be used again in its current form," the watchdog said. "We told Hyperoptic Ltd to ensure their marketing communications were obviously identifiable as such in future." ®

 

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