Aer Lingus and Vodafone forced to remove misleading ads

Confusion over airplane seats, misleading broadband speeds and a guarantee to lose a stone in 12 days saw Aer Lingus, Vodafone and Educogym respectively forced to withdraw adverts by the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI).

The authority upheld 11 complaints in its latest quarterly report which found a lack of truthfulness was the largest cause of concern for consumers.

Among the adverts criticised was a promotional email by Aer Lingus which guaranteed 50 per cent off the price of every seat on selected routes from London to Ireland from December 1st to March 25th.

The complainant said when he went to book a flight for his friend to fly home for Christmas, he found he could not receive the discount as it fell within the Christmas period which Aer Lingus said was not included in the promotion.

He claimed only when he looked at the terms and conditions of the offer, which he considered to be in small print did he discover that the Christmas period was excluded from the offer.

The complainant stated in their view the advertisement was misleading as it had guaranteed 50 per cent off “every” seat.

Aer Lingus is yet to respond to the complaint. The ASAI forced the airline to remove the advertisement.

Another complaint about Educogym was upheld by authority because the company claimed a customer could lose a stone in 12 days.

The text of the Educogym advertisement stated someone could “lose a stone in 12 days! For only €189.Our 12 day programme that will turn the clock back”.

The complainant said the advertising was misleading to suggest that a person could lose a stone in 12 days and that it was unsafe to suggest that this amount of weight could be lost in such a short period of time.

Educogym contacted the ASAI and said they would not be using the advertisement in future.

Vodafone was also sanctioned by the advertising watchdog when they had advertised ‘superfast’ broadband speeds of up to 24Mbps.

However, when the complainant signed up to the internet provider, they found they could receive speeds of less than 1Mbps.

Vodafone said they always ensure that any statement in relation to speed is qualified by use of the word “up to” and advised that the terms and conditions state that actual internet speed was dependant on distance and line quality.

The ASAI said the description of a plan with a speed of “up to 24Mbps” as “superfast” could be considered to be exaggeration. The authority forced Vodafone to cease from using the claim “superfast” to advertise with speeds of up to 24Mbps.

Companies in breach of ASAI rules are not fined but are ordered to change or remove the offending ads and breaches are identified in the authority’s reports.

A full list of companies against whom complaints have been upheld can be viewed on the ASAI website.