ASA rules against Xcite mobile ads

By Damaria Senne, ITWeb senior journalist

Johannesburg, 11 May 2006

Two Xcite Mobile TV commercials for SMS-based services are likely to mislead a reasonable consumer, the Advertising Standards Authority of SA (ASA) has ruled.

The ASA ruling comes despite the commercials meeting the Wireless Applications Service Providers Association (WASPA) code of conduct.

Companies bundling SMS content with a subscription service must clarify it is part of a subscription service, and disclose how much the service costs, the directorate ruled. Brief disclaimers hidden in crowded advertisements are not sufficient to stop consumers from being misled, the ruling says.

The ruling came about as a result of two consumer complaints lodged against Xcite for commercials screened on eTV in January.

The complainants said the commercials do not clearly state the products offered were part of a subscription service, at a cost of R5 per week. In its defence, Xcite said its advertising complies with the WASPA code of conduct.

The ASA directorate noted while the ASA and WASPA both have certain obligations in terms of their own codes, some of which overlap, the complaints were lodged with the ASA, which is obliged to consider them in terms of the ASA code.

Leon Perlman, chairman of WASPA, says the WASPA code of conduct was amended three months ago to bring it in line with the ASA advertising code. He says this move ensures complaints heard by the ASA and WASPA on issues of mobile content advertising are adjudicated on similar guidelines.

WASPA, he notes, has also appointed an adjudicator who will deal specifically with complaints related to TV commercials.

WASPA has two complaints related to Xcite`s TV commercials that are pending, Perlman says. However, he could not confirm whether these were the same commercials that were reported to the ASA.