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MTN wins 'marketing war'

Bonnie Tubbs
By Bonnie Tubbs, ITWeb telecoms editor.
Johannesburg, 11 Sept 2012

Cell C has been ordered to withdraw its recent television and radio advertisements, after MTN accused the operator of disparaging its “Zone” and “Mahala Thursdays” promotions via suggestive words and exclamations.

Following the launch of Cell C's “99 Cents For Real” marketing campaign in May, MTN filed two urgent complaints against Cell C with the Advertising Standards Authority of SA (ASA). It cited contravention of the section of the ASA Code that deals with disparagement and comparative advertising.

At the time, Cell C said the complaint came after MTN launched a radio campaign of its own that constituted disparagement of Cell C's 99 Cents For Real campaign - but said it would ignore the radio adverts.

Last week, the ASA ruled in favour of MTN, upholding its complaints with regards to both Cell C's radio and television adverts, and directing the company to withdraw them both - with immediate effect - and not use them again in their current format.

“The Cell C television/radio commercial disparages MTN's product/products and is, therefore, in breach of Clause 6 of Secion II.”

Counter-claim

According to the ASA's ruling, Cell C's TV advert, featuring famous South African musician Zakes Bantwini, and its radio advert, featuring a male voice with an American accent - promote Cell C's product “by devaluing and, to a large extent, 'trashing' the competition beyond what is allowed for in the code”.

In its complaint, MTN said the first character in Cell C's TV commercial is presumably on MTN's network. In the commercial, the character looks at his cellphone and exclaims: “Damn, I'm out of the zone!”

The radio advert MTN contested features a male voice that says: “Some people can only make calls from zone one eKasi to zone three for cheaper - only one day of the week? That's not kwa!”

Cell C argued, among other points, that when an advertiser - in this case MTN - chooses to use “ordinary words” to describe products (such as “zone” and “only one day of the week”), it runs the risk that those words can be used to have a secondary dig at them in advertising. “It is permissible in terms of the ASA Code to have a 'dig' at competitors as a secondary communication in an advertisement.”

MTN's radio adverts, featuring a character called “Papa” preceded the filing of urgent complaints against Cell C.

MTN depicts “Papa” - presumably a reference to Cell C's “Papa's got a brand new pack” campaign - saying “Papa's got a brand new...”, and repeatedly use the phrase “brand new”. The second male voice says, at the end of the advert: “and stop with the fake American accent”.

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