EE has called on the advertising regulator to ban mobile phone rival 3’s multimillion-pound Muppet-style campaign.
The UK’s largest mobile phone company has taken umbrage at 3’s latest adverts, in particular one strapline where it claims it is the “undisputed” leader.
The ad features Jackson, a Muppet-like creation of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, in a boxing outfit being hoisted aloft in a moment of triumph.
The strapline runs with the line: “The undisputed. UK’s most reliable network. Again.”
EE has already taken to social media to express its anger against its rival with a post on Twitter showing the definition of the word “undisputed” in the dictionary.
@ThreeUK Undisputed? Not quite: https://t.co/z8KvI0HHFY #makeitright #getitright pic.twitter.com/CGzfKJ6933
— EE (@EE) November 5, 2015
The company has decided to escalate its grievance and has submitted a formal complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority asking it to launch an investigation.
The ASA will assess the complaint against the UK code under rules relating to misleading advertising and comparative and verifiable marketing claims.
“We’d agree that reliability is critical to mobile customers,” said a spokesman for EE. “Purple puppets aside, it’s well known that to claim undisputed you need to win and unify the awards across all the awarding bodies. EE has recently won reliability awards, but that doesn’t make us ‘undisputed’. We’ve simply asked 3 UK to reflect this.”
A spokesman for 3 UK said that the company stands by its advertising claims.
“According to YouGov, 3 UK has been rated the most reliable network by consumers on five consecutive occasions,” he said. “Customers rated 3 UK highest on all topics relating to reliability, such as reliability for calls and texts, reliability during the day and reliability during the evening. 3 UK also came out top for ‘overall reliability’’. We are very proud of this accolade, which is why we have chosen to celebrate it in our current [advertising] activity.”
