By Simon Quicke27 August 2008
Apple has fallen wayward of the Advertising Standards
Authority (ASA) over an advert for the iPhone, which has bee ruled to have been
misleading.
In the advert a users was seen browsing weather reports,
stock quotes and news pages online with the voice over promising that all of
the internet was available to users.
A couple of complainants contacted the ASA pointing out that
without support for Java and Flash, used on most web pages, the claim was not
totally accurate.
Apple hit back claiming that it was referring to the
availability of web pages rather than the specific appearance but that defence
was not enough to sway the ASA, which ruled that the ad was misleading and
cannot be used again in its current form.
In its assessment the ASA pointed out that Apple had
suggested an experience of the Internet in its advert that could not be
delivered.
“The ASA noted that
Java and Flash proprietary software was not enabled on the iPhone and
understood that users would therefore be unable to access certain features on
some websites or websites that relied solely on Flash or Java. We noted Apples
argument that the ad was about site availability rather than technical detail,
but considered that the claims "You’ll never know which part of the
internet youll need" and "all parts of the internet are on the
iPhone" implied users would be able to access all websites and see them in
their entirety.”
