connection’
Belinda Beresford
The sound and fury of the phone war between Vodacom and MTN over whose signals are better has resulted in MTN being chastised by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
For the next six months, the errant cellphone company has to submit all its advertising for approval before it can be broadcast or published. The punishment follows the ASA’s decision that MTN had failed to substantiate advertising claims that its signals were better than its rivals.
Meanwhile, Vodacom says it is finalising preparations to take legal action against MTN for the claims it has made. The tests cited in the advertising campaign became immersed in controversy after allegations that there had been outside interference during the trials of Vodacom’s signal.
The independent assessor, KPMG, withdrew its endorsement of the tests after revelations that helicopters and other vehicles had monitored the testing process. There have been allegations that the vehicles may have adversely affected the Vodacom signal.
The ASA’s code requires that any comparative testing must be approved by an independent source.
According to ASA executive director Deline Beukes, “KPMG was the independent organisation sanctioning that the advertising was fair and impartial. During the debate, KPMG withdrew its endorsement, so the ASA questioned it [the advertising].”
She says MTN is being punished for ignoring a ruling that all comparative advertising relating to the tests should be withdrawn. MTN says the breaches were inadvertent, and due to advertising deadlines and “administrative error”.
MTN’s advertising now has to be submitted to the Association of Advertising Agencies for pre-approval before publication or broadcast. “By publishing the advertisements in question subsequent to the ASA directorate’s ruling, MTN acted in violation of not only the letter, but also the spirit of the industry’s code.”
The ASA says the pre-clearance requirement is “not imposed regularly, but it is applied when companies contravene the code”. Companies which have been sanctioned in this way in the past include BMW and Edgars.
MTN group executive for corporate relations Jacques Sellschop says that in some cases newspaper deadlines made the withdrawal of adverts impossible, and in other cases administrative error had led to their re- publication.
Beukes says, however, that the ASA committee handing down the decision had not accepted this argument.
Sellschop said the issue was now “academic”, since MTN had decided not to run any comparative advertisements in the next six months. However, MTN is still defending its tests, saying that other business bodies have endorsed the integrity of the procedures.
The ruling against MTN is the latest in a series of disputes between MTN and Vodacom about alleged misleading advertising and dirty tricks.
In its ruling, the ASA committee expressed concern about “the ongoing disputes in the cellular industry as it could bring self- regulation and advertising into dispute”. It suggested a meeting involving senior representatives be convened “to discuss the recurring problems in the cellular industry”.