Telecom ads crash to Earth as space promotion hits trouble

The ASA upheld a complaint about the space trip promotion.

Telecom went too far in claiming it would send the winner of a competition into space, the Advertising Standards Authority has ruled.

In upholding a complaint about this year's Xtra Broadband "Win a Trip to Space" promotion, the authority said yesterday that the winner would be sent only to the stratosphere.

Three people complained about the Saatchi & Saatchi advertisements, saying the prize was not a trip to space, but a ride to the upper atmosphere - or stratosphere - in a Russian MiG fighter jet.

Wellington analyst Brenton Hodgson said: "The dollar value of a trip to space is measured in the tens of millions of dollars. A ride in a fighter plane costs tens of thousands."

A voluntary code bans ads from making claims that mislead or deceive consumers. However, the code allows exaggeration if it is so obvious it is not considered to be misleading.

Most of the authority's board believed the ads made a claim likely to exploit a consumer's lack of knowledge about space travel.

The board believed people could train and pay to travel to space: "Accordingly, it was technically possible and not an unreal expectation for a consumer to believe that they would actually win a trip to space, as opposed to the upper atmosphere."

Telecom public affairs manager John Goulter said: "The next time Telecom is venturing anywhere near space, we'll make sure we get our galactic language more clear."

In April, the winner of the prize chose to go to the Maldives instead of accepting the ride on the MiG.

The authority received 679 complaints last year. Of those, 267 were deemed serious enough to go before the board.

Almost half were not upheld, 59 were settled independently and 87 were upheld.