ASA rules against four TV companies

ONdigital, ITV, Cable & Wireless Communications and BSkyB all had complaints upheld against their ads in the latest monthly report from the Advertising Standards Authority.

A national press ad through HHCL & Partners for ITV series The Bill headlined “Police interview tapes sold to perverts. Is the Met so hard up?” was ruled misleading and offensive to the Metropolitan Police. ITV has apologised for the ad, which only appeared for one day.

The ASA upheld complaints from BSkyB and CWC against ads claiming “ONdigital lets you choose your own choice of channels” because they “implied wrongly that customers had complete freedom of choice”.

The ASA also asked ONdigital to ensure its ads state the need for a decoder when promoting the ease of receiving a signal, after upholding a complaint from BSkyB.

The ASA upheld a complaint about a CWC direct mail campaign which implied that certain programmes could be seen during the trial period when they were due to be shown at a later date.

BSkyB, trading as SkyDigital, was also asked to take more care after an Internet ad for a special Sky Entertainment package failed to point out that two of the channels in the package QVC and Sky News were available to all SkyDigital subscribers.

In its monthly report the ASA also rejected 22 complaints claiming a poster for Pirelli Tyres, created by Young & Rubicam, was offensive because the stance of Brazilian footballer Ronaldo overlooking Rio with his arms outstretched was similar to that of the sculpture of Christ overlooking the city.

It also rejected 100 complaints which claimed a poster campaign created by HHCL & Partners for the Britvic Soft Drinks’ brand Tango was offensive because of the use of language and images associated with Christmas and the birth of Christ.