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Apple forced to drop misleading iPhone ads
Tech Digest —
... who said that their iPhone 3G was anything but fast, and that the TV advert had misled them. The ad, if you've not seen it, goes on and on about how the iPhone 3G is 'really fast', and shows maps and news sites appearing in milliseconds. 3G's good, but even in central London it's not that good. Apple, therefore, will not be able to broadcast the advert again in its current state. No word whether a new version of the ad will include 20-second 'loading' pauses and random Safari crashes. ASA's ajudication (via ...
Apple Ad Banned For Misleading Consumers On iPhone's Speed
mocoNews —
... was sidelined for giving a misleading impression of the gadgets internet capabilities, namely that it supported Java and Flash. Read the ASA's full ruling. ...
Apple's deceptive iPhone ad banned in the UK
Technology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk —
... , it has now been banned in the UK. The Advertising Standards Authority received 17 complaints that the ad was misleading for "exaggerating the speed of the iPhone 3G". ...
This iPhone ad was banned in Britain
Brainstorm Tech: Technology blogs, news and analysis from Fortune Magazine » Apple 2.0 —
... showed an iPhone 3G downloading files and Web pages “really fast” — in less than a second — something you can apparently do in an editing room but not with an iPhone in the wild.
Judge for yourself. Although the ad can no longer be aired in Britain, we can show it here, via paidcontent.org:
You can read the ASA’s ruling, including Apple’s (AAPL) three paragraph defense, here.
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Brits Ban Deceptive Apple iPhone Ad (AAPL)
Silicon Alley Insider —
Remember that deceptive Apple (AAPL) commercial that showed the iPhone 3G loading Web sites and maps much, much faster than it performs in the real world? A similar (but not identical) version of it is now banned in the U.K.: The British Advertising Standards Authority concludes that it's "misleading advertising."
Tough pill to swallow. It's hard to fit a message in a 30-second spot illustrating how a cellphone can use the Web, make calls, access maps via GPS, etc., without editing. But it's still deceptive: Even with newer software, Apple's ...
Apple forced to drop deceptive television ad in UK
The Apple Core —
... and Apple eventually added a tiny on-screen disclaimer that says “network performance will vary by location.” Today the commercial was banned in the UK by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) which received 17 complaints that the ad was misleading for “exaggerating the speed of the iPhone 3G.”
Apple claiming iPhone 3G is 'really fast' deemed false by UK regulators
Betanews —
... and exaggerative, and must be pulled. The ASA received 17 complaints from television viewers who believed Apple's "So what's so great about 3G?" ad for the company's latest iPhone inaccurately portrayed the speed of the iPhone 3G. In the ad, Web pages are loaded in a fraction of a second with a voice-over stating (four times) that news, directions, and the Internet are each "really fast." According to the ASA, this ad violates three sections of the BCAP TV Advertising Code: Apple's response was that the ad was clearly comparing the 3G's speed against its 2G predecessor, and ...
What’s the Deal with Apple and Misleading Ads?
The Inquisitr » Technology —
... The most recent case involves an iPhone 3G commercial that shows users surfing the Net at superfast speeds. The U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority ruled that the spot exaggerated the phone’s speed, showing Internet activity far faster than any regular user would experience. A disclaimer at the end stating “network performance will vary by location” was not sufficient, it said. ...
British agency bans another Apple iPhone ad as "misleading"
Infinite Loop —
British iPhone ad that claims iPhone 3G is "really fast." Apple is once again in hot water again over British TV ads for its iPhone 3G. An ad that repeatedly showed an iPhone 3G accessing data "really fast" was recently ruled "likely to mislead" by the country's Advertising Standards Authority. The ad has been banned from British airwaves , with the ASA telling Apple that "[t]he ad must not appear again in its current form." Apple defended the ad by saying that the claims were general in nature and meant to reflect the improvements over its original, EDGE-based ...
U.K. ad watchdog to Apple: Not so fast
GMSV —
... voiceover accompanied visuals showing the phone loading Web pages in under a second. Apple maintained that “really fast” was relative, not absolute; that compared with the iPhone 2G, the 3G was indeed “really fast”; and that the average viewer understood things like the vagaries of network performance and the illustrative nature of commercials. The ASA wasn’t buying. “We noted the voiceover claim ‘really fast’ was used in conjunction with each of the functions shown in the visuals,” the group said in its ruling . “Although we noted the on-screen text disclaimer, “network ...
Good for Great Britain, For Defending Truth In Advertising
Byte of the Apple - BusinessWeek —
... : But now that Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority has banned one such ad, I can’t say I disagree with its logic. Here’s part of the ASA’s explanation : We noted the voice-over claim “really fast” was used in conjunction with each of the functions shown in the visuals. Although we noted the on-screen text disclaimer, “network performance will vary by location”, we considered that the visuals, in conjunction with the repeated use of the claim “really fast”, were likely to lead viewers to believe that the device actually operated at or near to the speeds shown in the ad. ...
Apple Axes Antivirus Help Page
InformationWeek - All Stories And Blogs —
... to consumer complaints, the agency concluded in its ruling last month that the iPhone 3G was not "really fast" in the context shown by Apple's ad. "Although we noted the on-screen text disclaimer, 'network performance will vary by location,' we considered that the visuals, in conjunction with the repeated use of the claim 'really fast,' were likely to lead viewers to believe that the device actually operated at or near to the speeds shown in the ad," the agency's November adjudication ruling says. "Because we understood that it did not, we concluded that the ad was likely ...
