npower begins ad campaign with hijacked icon

Npower is launching its first advertising work starring Sid, the brand icon that it has hijacked from rival British Gas, in tonight’s Evening Standard.

The campaign will have the strapline “Tell Sid… npower is cutting prices” and it will be rolled-out across national and regional press tomorrow.

The ads claim that npower will be “Britain’s cheapest supplier. Cheapest for the average customer, anywhere in the UK.”

But the campaign has already come under fire from consumer watchdogs. Energywatch has labelled its price reductions as little more than “tokenism”.

USwitch, online switching website, says: “while the announcement is great news for the millions of households thinking of switching, the small print reveals that existing npower customers will be left out in the cold for at least another two months, as they will not see their prices fall until 30th April 2007”.

Ann Robinson, director of consumer policy, adds: “Npower spent most of last year with its hand in the cookie jar and today it is being less than generous by sharing the crumbs with its customers. All the suppliers have been withholding the benefits of falling basic costs of energy from their customers for far too long. It’s time for them all to put their customers first and pass these savings back instead of lining their shareholder’s pockets.”