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Lay off Apple's 'really fast' iPhone 3G ad

November 26, 2008

Another Apple iPhone 3G advert has been pulled from our screens because a handful - albeit a rather horrible hand with 17 fingers - of pedants complained that it wasn't realistic.

The Advertising Standard Authority (ASA) bowed to a trickle of complaints that an iPhone 3G advert claimed that the handset is "really fast".

The moaners objected to the fact that the ad showed pages loading rather quickly... ok, "really fast".

Apple-iPhone-3G-web

What do these people expect - Apple to air a two-minute advert where the iPhone is shown laboriously loading a range of average web pages?

Do these crazies also complain when actors in telly ads brew a cup of steaming coffee in about 5 seconds flat before they fall into some unbelievably unfunny comic situation? Surely no kettle on Earth could boil that fast.

Or what about the ads where a fat man and his lazy son clean an entire kitchen in about 3 seconds, with Flash or whatever? Other commercials regularly show a disgusting plate go in a dishwasher, only for it to be plucked out 5 seconds later glistening like a polished diamond in a mirror factory.

Please tell us, ASA, how these blatant, appalling lies are allowed to brainwash the gullible, while a 30-second Apple iPhone ad has to adhere to the strict laws of time?

Visit Mobile Advisor for the latest mobile phone news, reviews, tips & tricks, as well as PC Advisor's unique Apple iPhone 3G Spotlight

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Posted by: Simon Jary

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Comments

Posted by A Pedant on November 26, 2008 :

Why have these people complained? Because the ad is being used to show a capability of the product which the actual product cannot match.
It is against ASA guidelines to falsely advertise as fact something which cannot be substantiated, in case you didn't realise.
According to your pointless argument (?) it should be perfectly fine for Apple to say "Our iPhone can make your chimpanzee play the piano" because they showed that in PG adverts.
What an utterly stupid article. Don't give up the day job!

Posted by simonjary on November 26, 2008 :

I forgot about the chimps. Good point!

Posted by Michael J on November 27, 2008 :

Oh don't be so silly Simon. The advert was completely misleading as the whole point of the spoken word was how fast the iPhone was and yet it showed speeds that cannot be attained on a real iPhone. The average consumer would see what appears to be a phone operating at a certain speed that can never actually happen, with the spoken word indicating how fast it was - almost an attempt at deceit. The other adverts you cite are completely different affairs, as you well know.

Posted by Tarmon on November 27, 2008 :

Simple Simon.
again.

Posted by Ron on November 27, 2008 :

Come off it, Simon. A jar of coffee costs a tiny fraction of the price of an iPhone, and your comparison is facile. The ad clearly misrepresented an expensive piece of kit - and was rightly pulled.

Other companies advertising similar gadgets on TV manage to include disclaimers in their ads to the effect that what was shown was not actually possible in reality - Apple, it seems, don't feel they need to. Arrogant sods.

Posted by Ron on November 27, 2008 :

Almost forgot - Apple have been done for this in the past, too. Don't they - or you - learn?

Posted by Darnit on November 27, 2008 :

Er, I think the guy was being sarcastic/ironic

Posted by Mal on November 27, 2008 :

or just stupido/vacant

Posted by Micro Softy on November 28, 2008 :

I don't think sarcasm/irony was involved at all. Just pure unadulterated Apple fanboy-ism.
Any other company putting out a similarly misleading advert would probably, in his blinkered mind, have been guilty of the greatest crime of all time, but because it has an Apple on it, Simon Jary can't possibly see anything wrong with it.
Apple are just another company who will lie, cheat and steal to get consumers to hand over money, but because idiots like Jary are so willing to take whatever they throw out as the physical embodiment of God which must be worshipped, they are considered beyond reproach.
Sad, stupid little man!

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