T-Mobile says it will comply with recommendations from The National Advertising Division (NAD) of BBB National Programs that the provider discontinue or modify both a general claim and a specific Internet commercial related to advertising for its Home Internet fixed wireless service.
The recommendations were in reaction to Fast Track SWIFT challenges brought by Comcast Cable Communications Management LLC and Charter Communications Inc., respectively. Fast-Track SWIFT are expedited challenges brought to NAD for single issue advertising cases.
T-Mobile Ad Claims
The challenges, which are similar, referred to the “Don’t you worry ’bout speed” claim for the service.
The Comcast challenge asked NAD to recommend that the “Don’t you worry ’bout speed” claim be discontinued. In essence, NAD determined that the claim suggested that users will get all the speed they need, without limitation.
NAD also found that the claim suggests that users will be supported in all typical activities, including intensive uses such as gaming or streaming on multiple devices at any time during the stay. NAD found that the carrier’s “evidence was not a good fit for its broad unqualified performance claim.”
The Charter challenge referred to a specific Internet commercial that used essentially the same verbiage. The ad included a graphic of a speedometer that “dings when it reaches the highest 5G level of speed.” This, the challenge said, implies that users will get 5G service. NAD concluded that the presentation “communicates a broad unqualified performance claim.”
In both cases, T-Mobile said that it would comply with the recommendations but “strongly disagrees” with the findings.
These are not the first instances of T-Mobile being brought to task by NAD for ad claims about its home Internet service. Last August, T-Mobile agreed to comply with a recommendation that the carrier discontinue advertising claims that subscribers can save “as much as 50% compared the National FCC Broadband Rate Benchmark.” NAD found that the claims, which were onscreen for only two seconds, were misleading.
