Orange let off the hook over Rainbow ad

'Unlimited' does not have to mean 'unlimited', says ASA

Orange has been let off the hook after the Advertising Standards Authority received five complaints about an ad campaign offering unlimited free texts on its pay-as-you-go system.

The ad opens with a man on a roof unfurling a rainbow flag. The 'rainbow' continues in a variety of formats, including a line drawn along a wall covered in sheets of paper and a large rainbow-coloured cloth fired from a home-made cannon.

During the ad a voiceover said: 'It's great when good things never end', followed by 'That's why at Orange we now offer unlimited free texts on Orange Pay As You Go, to any network, at any time. So you can keep on texting as long as you want.'

Accompanying press and poster ads carried the same claim. All the ads specified that 'terms applied', including a fair usage policy, a required £30 top up and that the offer was for UK texts only.

The complainants all challenged whether the 'unlimited' claim was misleading, because they believed the offer was subject to a fair usage policy of 3,000 texts per month or because customers had to top-up with £30 each month to receive the free texts.

Orange responded by saying that its unlimited free text offer was subject to a fair usage policy of 3,000 texts per month, which it mentioned in all the ads.

Furthermore, Orange argued that it did not charge customers that went over that limit, or stop them from sending texts, but that it did reserve the right to review excessive usage.

If a customer regularly went over the fair usage policy it asked that customer to reduce their usage and could move them onto a different tariff which did not have unlimited texts.

The fine print included in all points of the ad campaign, combined with Orange's explanation was enough to placate the ASA which dismissed the claimants' concerns.

"On this point we investigated the TV ad under CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1 (Misleading advertising), 5.2.1 (Evidence) and 5.2.3 (Qualifications) but did not find it in breach," said the ASA in its ruling.

"Overall, the ASA investigated Orange under CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 5.1 (Misleading advertising), 5.2.1 (Evidence), 5.2.3 (Qualifications), 7.1 (Truthfulness), 32.1 and 32.4 (Free offers and free trials) but in all cases did not find it in breach of regulations."