BT in dock over Ogilvy mailing

BT has found itself in trouble for the second time in days for sending a mailshot warning O2 customers that Sky was about to cut off their broadband services.
The campaign tapped into the fact that Sky was migrating O2 customers to its own platform, after buying O2 Home Broadband and Home Phone for £200m last year.
The switchover had been well-publicised, but the BT mailing – devised by Ogilvy – tried to exploit the change to lure customers to its service.
On the envelope, text stated: “Sky to switch off O2 broadband by April 2014”. Meanwhile, the letter inside read: “Did you know that if you haven’t signed up to a Sky broadband package by April 2014, Sky will be able to switch off your old O2 broadband service? So now is the perfect time to start thinking about changing your broadband provider.”
But Sky rifled off a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority, challenging whether the “switch off” claim misleadingly implied that the firm was going to automatically turn off O2 customers’ broadband service without notice – when in fact the switchover was automatic.
In response, BT refuted the suggestion, saying it believed customers would simply understand the mailshot to mean that there would be an alternative provider for O2 customers’ broadband service.
The ASA was less than impressed, however, ruling that the mailing deliberately misled O2 customers into believing they would lose their broadband service, and banned the campaign from running again.
Just last week BT bosses were forced to apologise after sending a mailshot promoting its Infinity broadband service addressed “Dear Melon Porkface”.