Second UK iPhone Ad Banned by Advertising Authority
The Advertising Standards Authority has banned an iPhone 3G commercial, claiming it was misleading consumers. The ad is the second iPhone advert to be banned by the ASA this year.
The commercial in question displayed a close-up of the iPhone 3G surfing the web. A voice over stated that the iPhone 3G was better than the first generation iPhone because it was “really fast”. Apparently people had a problem that bar the fine print in the corner reading “Network performance will vary by location”, the ad showed a phone loading pages in very short spaces of time and were disappointed to discover their own iPhone 3G did not load web pages as fast.
According to VNUnet, Apple claimed that the commercial was relative rather than absolute in nature, and that referencing 3G at the start clearly indicated the advertisement was a comparison between the iPhone 3G and the older version of the Apple cell phone. The Cupertino company also said that most people would know speeds depend on a number of different factors, as is the case with all mobile phones.
The ASA concluded that the advert was misleading because a large portion of viewers would not be familiar with 3G technology and were likely to believe that the device actually operated at similar speeds to the device in the advert. Because of this, the Association asked Apple not to show the advert again “in its current form.”
While the aforementioned advert received around 17 complaints, Apple had another commercial banned by the ASA in the UK back in August. Receiving two complaints about the iPhone ad, the Authority said it had the potential to mislead customers because it said it allowed users to fully browse the web with access to “all parts of the Internet,” despite that fact that the handset does not support Java or Flash.
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Anyone else find it ironic? with teh vista and the "misleading" that the vista cable solagn supposedly did...
*capable* Also it's funny that their defense is that most people would know the "speeds depend on a number of different factors, as is the case with all mobile phones."
Well the same thing can be said with the Vista capable slogan if people did some research for once in their life. Also most people would NOT know that. I mean if they don't know what Vista Capable really means. How would know exactly what factors play in for determining the speed of a mobile phone?
19 people whined about an ad... so they can't show it on a WHOLE continent? That's FEE'd up!
I thought it was bad here, where a few 100 people could do that... but 19?!? That's sick!
not quite 'a continent' more an island of around 60-70 million. So 20 people over here is about the same proportion as 100 in the States.
Personally I would ban all apple ad's on public health grounds, their level of smugness makes me want to hurt things ...
while they are at it get rid of those BS & misleading AD's for the "I'm a PC" those are totally misleading & full of BS.
I'd love to meet John Hodgman so I can give him a punch in the Stomach.
Macs are Personal Computers, and even if you exclude Macs, you don't have to be running Windows. Not to mention the amount of shit they spew. Everytime I speak to someone about a Mac, I feel like am I'm arguing with an Advertising campaign, as they usually spew nonsensical jargon and marketing phrases. We really need to abolish them.
...I'd love to meet John Hodgman so I can give him a punch in the Stomach....
It can be a tag team... just as long as I get to punch Justin Long in the throat.
I think that Apple fails to make it clear that their computers are not geared towards a "power user". Their "I'm a PC" campaign does not hold up so well against someone who needs more performance. I am sorry but a smooth OS is not going to make up for processing power. I am not angry at them for this but it still bothers me that they are so vague in their advertisement.