Sky broadband advert banned over ‘misleading’ price claims
After a challenge by rival BT, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a recent Sky Broadband ad because it was “likely to mislead” consumers.
One phrase in particular is deemed to have been problematic.
Sky claimed that its latest deals were, “our best prices”, and while we’ve now read that phrase one too many times for the words to make sense any more, the ASA concluded that most people would assume it meant, “our best prices in comparison with recent broadband prices“.
However, just the previous month the ASA notes that the company’s broadband prices were actually cheaper, thus making the claims misleading.
Related: Best broadband deals
For its part, Sky has claimed that the claim meant that the combined broadband and TV deal had “our best prices compared to if you were to buy broadband by itself.”
In recognition that, in the grand scheme of things, this isn’t the worst thing to have done, the ASA hasn’t fined Sky. Instead, it’s told the company not to re-run the advert.
What would you take the words ‘our best prices’ to mean? Let us know @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
