Apparently I’m not the only one taking note of some of the tweaks in Apple’s iPhone ads. Unfortunately, while I don’t have the power to do much more than comment, the United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Authority has a wee bit more juice than I do—I know! I couldn’t believe it either!
The ASA has upheld a complaint against an iPhone ad that they’ve deemed “misleading.” The spot in question claims the iPhone is capable of displaying “all the parts of the Internet,” but a pair of complaints to the agency pointed out that since the iPhone does not have Flash or Java, there are plenty of things on the web that are not viewable.
Apple attempted to rebut the claim by saying that Flash and Java are proprietary systems they chose not to implement and the message of their commercial is about page availability and not how they displayed, but the counter-argument fell on deaf ears. In upholding the complaint, the ASA has deemed that the spot should not be run again as it stands.
While we here in the U.S. take hyperbole in advertising as a matter of course, the United Kingdom’s standards are somewhat stricter. This isn’t the first time that Apple’s run afoul of the ASA either. Back in 2004, a similar complaint was leveled against an ad for the Power Mac G5 in which Apple had billed the machine as the “world’s fastest personal computer.”
If this were baseball, Apple would have one more strike to go, but since it’s the U.K., I guess we’ll just say that it isn’t cricket and be done with it.
[via BBC]
Wow, ridiculous.
No, not ridiculous....
The uk and the advertising here tends to be based on fact and is by law, required to do so. As opposed to everything being 'the number one something' or 'the best in the world', there actually has to be proof of this fact, not just words. Basically, adverts cannot lead those watching them by the nose, they need to be accurate and factual.
Personally, I find that to be a great thing. Good to know that the bullshit can only go so far before a slap on the wrist is applied.
None of my Macs support "all the parts of the internet" because Silverlight doesn't run on PowerPCs.