Could new iPhone advert bring three bans in a row for Apple?

Davey Winder
Thursday, 27 November 2008 15:32

IT Industry - Market

That's what the advert says, and it shows the iPhone in use to back up the claim. Everything is really fast.

Including the disclaimer which appeared for a split second and stated "Network performance will vary by location". That was really fast, really really fast actually.

Apple insist that the viewer, the mobile phone user, would understand that speed is variable depending upon signal so it was all above board.

After all, everyone knows that mobile phone connectivity speeds vary from provider to provider, location by location.

The ASA disagreed and banned the advert in its current form after concluding that "the ad was likely to mislead."

Unfortunately, I do not believe the Apple advert woes are over in the UK as just last night I watched an advert for the iPhone which was showing how quick and easy it is to install an application.

Go to the App Store, touch the application icon, touch the install icon, the application installs and appears.

Great, apart from all the steps inbetween and the time it takes for the app to download and install, and maybe the iPhone reboot that is sometimes required.

This ad does state at the end that some steps and processes have been omitted, but I doubt that will be enough to satisfy the ASA should the great British public start moaning about this one.