Sky Italia and Mediaset censured for aggressive ad campaigns

The Milan-based Italian advertising adjudicator has ordered Italian pay-TV rivals Sky Italia and Mediaset to cease broadcasts of “comparative” TV adverts because they denigrated the rival service.

The ruling came after a complaint by Sky Italia against a campaign by Mediaset that compared Sky’s service unfavourably to its own. Mediaset responded with a complaint of its own against a campaign by Sky that compared digital-terrestrial viewers to a mole living in a hole in the ground.

Mediaset was found to have displayed lack of respect for the terms under which comparative advertising can be carried out, while Sky was ordered to stop using its mole character because it denigrated the competition.