iPhone Ad Banned Over Misleading Internet Claims
UK’s advertising authority has ordered Apple to remove an iPhone ad from TV screens due to bigging up the device’s internet capabilities far more than was actually true.
The 29-second advert showed many of the iPhone’s functions including the weather updates, stocks and web browser Safari, whilst the voice over waxed lyrical about it’s prowess.
You never know which part of the internet you’ll need … which is why all the parts of the internet are on the iPhone.” Yeah, not strictly true as sites designed using Adobe’s graphics-heavy Flash do not yet work on the handset. Oh, and sites using Java technology don’t either, with no sign of this being rectified in the immediate future.
In their defence, Apple stated that their intention was to highlight site access rather than functionality, and that neither Java nor Flash was used in the ad.
Granted, Apple were attempting to distinguish the richer experience that their browser delivers compared to the cut down nature of WAP browsers on most handsets, and Flash and Java are third party programs which makes their integration tougher, but that doesn’t excuse their economy with the truth in the ad in question.
All it took was two complaints for the Advertising Standards Authority to take this up, and their subsequent ruling states: “”We noted Apple’s argument that the ad was about site availability rather than technical detail, but considered that the claims “You’ll never know which part of the internet youll need” and “all parts of the internet are on the iPhone” implied users would be able to access all websites and see them in their entirety. We considered that, because the ad had not explained the limitations, viewers were likely to expect to be able to see all the content on a website normally accessible through a PC rather than just having the ability to reach the website.” As such, the advert can no longer be seen in it’s current form on British screens.
Wonder if it was concerned members of society that complained, or a disgruntled industry rival? Either way, witness the shocking banned advert here.
Source: Washington Post/Guardian
[...] Almost three months ago to the day, Omio reported a story in which UK’s advertising authority ordered Apple to remove an iPhone 3G ad from TV screens due to bigging up the device’s internet capabilities far more than was actually true. [...]