Phones 4u was noted for its effective[27] and controversial advertising campaigns.
A shirt sponsorship deal was agreed with Birmingham City F.C. for two seasons, beginning in August 2001.[28] Phones 4u also sponsored Watford F.C for two seasons starting in 1999.[29]
In 2004, the comedy duo Flight of the Conchords featured in a television advert driving up and down Britain singing about the latest offers.[30]
Phones 4u's campaign of 2006 starred a variety of eccentric characters, including "Jack" and "Scary Mary", who needed help with their mobile phones. The adverts were often set at the British seaside and featured the Phones 4u hand gesture for the first time, which would be revived for later campaigns.
In the summer of 2009, Phones 4u and communications agency Adam & Eve launched a new advertising campaign based around social networking, popularity called "Great Deals for Popular People". The theme around the campaign was that the customer needs to have 50 contacts on their phone to get Phones 4u's best deals. In one of the ads, a scout master was displayed with the caption "You may be good with knots, you may be good with children, but there's no way you've got 50 friends on your phone", along with a large "NO" sticker. The campaign met criticism from The Scout Association, and the advert was pulled.[31]
In May 2010, it launched the "It's What We Do" campaign. Television adverts showed Bangkok prison guards getting accustomed to a new handset.[32]
In September 2011, the Advertising Standards Authority banned a Phones 4u advert depicting Buddy Christ alongside a range of Android phones with the message "Miraculous deals on Samsung Galaxy Android phones".
The ASA said "although the ads were intended to be light hearted and humorous, their depiction of Jesus winking and holding a thumbs up sign, with the text 'miraculous' deals during Easter, the Christian Holy Week which celebrated Christ's resurrection, gave the impression that they were mocking and belittling core Christian beliefs."[33]
Later in October 2011, Phones 4u switched its advertising focus to a broader demographic, spending £5.2m on a horror themed price led promotion called "Missing Our Deals Will Haunt You". The campaign included two television advertisements: one taking inspiration from horror movies, featuring a young girl; with the other making a play on the classic zombie genre.[27]
The former advertisement received the most complaints filed with the ASA for any advert in 2011,[34][35] however the complaints were rejected by the ASA who said "The programmes the advert was screened around were unlikely to be viewed by children."[34][36]
Phones 4u backed its advertising campaigns with television programme sponsorships, including Hollyoaks and Harry Hill's TV Burp. On 31 July 2013, it was announced that Phones 4u had secured a five-year sponsorship deal with the Manchester Arena, renaming the arena as the Phones 4u Arena.[37] In July 2014, it launched the "#FutureYou" campaign. Television adverts featured the DeLorean time machine famous from the Back to the Future films.[38]
