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iPhone advert banned for exaggerating speed

B

bananabar

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 10, 2008
218
0
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7749435.stm

Ages ago I said on here that the iPhone ad was loading pages faster than it actually can and that I felt misled by the ads and considered complaining.

MacForums users slammed me and had a real field day having a go at me! And look, the ASA agrees and Apple has egg on its face.

Now I'm going to sit back and look all smug!
 
I was just about to post this!

I think they always show page loads over WiFi on their ads, if the AirPort icon in the status bar is to be believed.

But I definitely agree it should have been banned, no way does any 3G network load complex pages and maps that fast.

But I guess it's not good advertising to show slow page loads!
 
I was just about to post it to.

I reckon they show a video and it's not a real input - would take too long to do half the stuff.

Doesn't matter if it's relative or not, there's no clause saying "Actual 3G speeds depend on network coverage".
 
Jeonat said:
I was just about to post this!

I think they always show page loads over WiFi on their ads, if the AirPort icon in the status bar is to be believed.

But I definitely agree it should have been banned, no way does any 3G network load complex pages and maps that fast.

But I guess it's not good advertising to show slow page loads!
Click to expand...

Find the advert on Apple or You Tube, join your own WiFi network and try and load the pages yourself. It takes about five times longer!

I think the processor of the phone can't actually process as quickly as they show - regardless of net speed.
 
Advertisements have exaggerated claims since, um, forever. Have any of you received a swarm of hot blonde Swedish women with your beer? Any of you had 20-somethings women start running right at you just because of Axe body spray? Are Froot Loops really as big as on the box?

If Apple claimed those commercials were a benchmark, it's one thing. They're just showing you what it can do. When they show video on there, it's not coming from that iPhone. It's simulated because there would be glare o'plenty.
 
Look, they just crammed all the features they wanted to advertise into one ad. If they actually showed it going at real speeds the ad would be too long.

Anyone with half a brain stem knows it doesn't actually go that fast.
 
Wait. You mean people without a brain stem think all of those dorks on the Verizon network are available for every person with a phone? Yikes.
 
So yet again Apple caught out in misleading ads in the UK. This seems to happen on a regular basis. What ad agency do they use and where is their quality control over content, or is it Apple insisting that their products are misleadingly portrayed.

As to the "anyone with any sense takes advertising with a pinch of salt", in that case rip up all advertising control and get back the the good old days of cigarettes sold as being good for your health! These guys would tell you to eat your granny if they were allowed (and there was a buck in it for them). Get real.
 
I'm wondering if advertising in the UK is very different from the US. In the UK, adverts CANNOT lie. At all. It's illegal to mislead consumers in any way. And the ASA and all other manufacturers etc. are always eyeballing others' adverts.

So perhaps this ad is ok in the US, but not in the UK.

Didn't Apple have another iPhone ad banned recently?
 
Michael CM1 said:
They're just showing you what it can do.
.
Click to expand...

And they're also showing something it can't do - which is function that fast.

I was one of the 17 that submitted a complaint. I like the Mac OS, I like my iPod Touch (I'm not particularly fond of my MBP or old MB, but they let me use the OS, so I don't mind too much). I don't like being lied to. My complaint centered less around network performance ( which, even with a full bar WiFi connection, would not be as fast as the advert suggested ), but around the raw performance of the device. It doesn't work that quickly. It takes longer to do all the things they suggest in the advert.

It was misleading, and intentionally so. That's wrong. If they had been honest and said from the beginning that it was an edited sequence (which the advert has now had added to the bottom incidentally) then I would have no grounds to complain.

I didn't lodge a complaint about the 'whole internet' advert - but that was also banned here in the UK.

Two banned ads from one product. Apple need to learn that they can't lie to the UK public. It's illegal.
 
The ad I saw last night, included words to the effect saying the loading demonstrated was speeded up, before mentioning the network based message.

So whats the problem there ASA? Hmmm
 
I don't know anything about British media law, but I know that you can get away with exaggerations in US ads. Exaggerations, not lies (unless they're political!).

But seriously. A pizza delivery chain called Papa John's says "better ingredients, better pizza." If someone eats one of their pizzas but likes someone else's better, should they be able to sue Papa John's for it not tasting better?

Wal-Mart brags about their low prices to the point of insanity. "Always low prices. Always." Does that mean you should believe that every price of theirs is lower than everywhere else?

The key thing is to try before you buy. Nobody in their right mind should spend $200 on something they don't try first or have an x-day guarantee. I messed around with iPhones a few times in stores before I bought mine.

The easy solution is to give her a first-generation iPhone for about a month. Then give her the 3G back. She won't complain about any speed issues after that.
 
bananabar said:
I'm wondering if advertising in the UK is very different from the US. In the UK, adverts CANNOT lie. At all. It's illegal to mislead consumers in any way. And the ASA and all other manufacturers etc. are always eyeballing others' adverts.

So perhaps this ad is ok in the US, but not in the UK.

Didn't Apple have another iPhone ad banned recently?
Click to expand...

So you believe you get loads of good looking women when you buy most alcohols?

Do you believe that some of the food you buy can actually talk? (Many ads for like yogurt or whatever feature talking stuff).

Of course you don't, why? Because you use your brain to understand that commercials will not be a representation of reality. They are all about showing off features.
 
Davidkoh said:
So you believe you get loads of good looking women when you buy most alcohols?

Do you believe that some of the food you buy can actually talk? (Many ads for like yogurt or whatever feature talking stuff).

Of course you don't, why? Because you use your brain to understand that commercials will not be a representation of reality. They are all about showing off features.
Click to expand...

please that doesnt even compare to this situation:rolleyes: the ads imply that performance if you didnt know better

bananabar said:
Please don't suggest my mother has less than half a brain stem. Not everyone is a computer geek.
Click to expand...

exactly
 
MagicWok said:
The ad I saw last night, included words to the effect saying the loading demonstrated was speeded up, before mentioning the network based message.

So whats the problem there ASA? Hmmm
Click to expand...

The ASA issued their initial findings about a month ago, which just needed to be signed off. Apple have added those words within the last week or so, in response to those initial findings. They added them because they knew they were going to be told they had to, not voluntarily.
 
Michael CM1 said:
"better ingredients, better pizza."

"Always low prices. Always."
Click to expand...

If they said "Best ingredients, best pizza" then yes, they could.

If they said "Always lowest prices" then yes, you should.

There's carefully worded and then there's lying.

It's like shampoo ads that say "clinically proven". They don't say what they proved or if they proved it right or wrong, but it was proved in a clinic so it's ok.

Apple lied.
 
Davidkoh said:
They are all about showing off features.
Click to expand...

One of the features Apple was specifically mentioning was this machine being 'twice as fast' - they were hitting icons and having things load quicker than they do. They were loading email faster than it loads. They were rendering a PDF to screen faster than they are. They were identifying their location on a Map faster than it does.

So, after saying it's 'twice as fast' and demonstrating this astonishing speed - which the device can not actually achieve - are you still prepared to say there was nothing wrong with the advert?
 
Michael CM1 said:
But seriously. A pizza delivery chain called Papa John's says "better ingredients, better pizza." If someone eats one of their pizzas but likes someone else's better, should they be able to sue Papa John's for it not tasting better?

Wal-Mart brags about their low prices to the point of insanity. "Always low prices. Always." Does that mean you should believe that every price of theirs is lower than everywhere else?
Click to expand...
Both of those are examples of subjective claims (also Wal-Mart says "low" not "lowest" or "lower than everyone else"). How fast the iPhone operates can be measured objectively.


Lethal
 
bananabar said:
That's below the belt. Admittedly my mother has a minor mental disability, but she should still be able to trust an advert. She was genuinley upset when she got her phone.
Click to expand...

OK, let's drop this mental mother thing before it gets out of hand. Maybe you should have advised her? Anyway, some things are obvious: a car getting thrown around, or really hot women - neither of these are real. Richard Hammond did not go to Lapland, but the point of that advert is that you don't need to. The point of the Cadbury's advert with the gorilla? God knows. But they are just saying you can buy our chocolate (and somewhere there's an ace gorilla drummer).

The iPhone ad says; "look how simple and fast our phone is: out now". So you look. Then you buy. Then you compare. Then you complain like an old fart because no gorilla drummer visited when you ate Cadbury's.

Davidkoh said:
So you believe you get loads of good looking women when you buy most alcohols?

Do you believe that some of the food you buy can actually talk? (Many ads for like yogurt or whatever feature talking stuff).

Of course you don't, why? Because you use your brain to understand that commercials will not be a representation of reality. They are all about showing off features.
Click to expand...

As has been covered below, Apple say it's twice as fast, and then show you. It's a lie. The yoghurt company does not say "our yoghurt talks", does it?
 
koobcamuk said:
As has been covered below, Apple say it's twice as fast, and then show you. It's a lie. The yoghurt company does not say "our yoghurt talks", does it?
Click to expand...


I don't see apple adding "actual speed shown" or anything. They say it's twice as fast as the old one, they never claim to show real speed.
 
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