Once again an advertisement for Apple’s iPhone has been sent to bed without supper as the United Kingdom’s Advertising Standard Authority has deemed an Apple ad to be misleading. the commercial for the iPhone 3g shows a user briskly moving about the Internet at speeds faster than anything short of a cable connection with a very large desktop might provide. The ad also describes the speed of surfing the net, downloading files and viewing Google maps as “really fast”.
It is this vague reference to speed that bothered the ASA. Apple attempted to explain that the campaign was meant as a comparison to the earlier 2g and EDGE based connectivity. The ads further qualified themselves with a disclaimer that the speed might vary based on the connectivity and location. Earlier this year another Apple iphone commercial was stricken down due to its reference that the iphone could access all parts of the Internet. As iPhones are not equipt to handle java and flash this statement was at least partially untrue.
The prior advertisment was also barred from airing on British media. Apple has often run afoul of watchdog agencys. not so much for their products inability to perform. No one doubts the creative brilliance behind Apple devices. But for there tendency to generalize in a manner that leave technical aspects unclear. A question that comes to mind is whether there is a single Apple iphone 3g user that is unhappy with the abilities of the device?
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