Contentious television advertisements about phone text promotions have stopped screening but there have been masses of complaints and the company running them continues to be investigated.
The promotion, run by Australian company TMG Asia Pacific, asks entrants to send text messages to bein to win prizes including televisions,
DVD players and video game con-soles.
Once an initial text is sent, several texts are sent back which cost the receiver a further $3 each, adding up to $15 a month.
Consumer magazine said it had received a record number of complaints about the promotion.
The magazine said it had sent four official complaints to the Advertising Standards Complaints Board and had received over 100 itself.
People who responded to the promotion believed they were entering a competition but were in effect subscribing to an expensive service, Consumer said.
Some people had even said they were charged $3 for receiving a text confirming their cancellation of the service.
The magazine slammed the advertisements as misleading and has called for them to be taken off the air permanently.
Advertising Standards Authority executive director Hilary Souter said the advertisements were not now screening on television, but TMG had not been asked to pull them.
She said TMG had responded to the authority but an investigation was still under way.
The Commerce Commission is also investigating whether the disclosure of the promotion's terms and conditions was adequate.
- NZPA
