Apple iPhone Ads Misleading; Not "All The Internet" : UK Ad Authority

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Rafat Ali

mocoNews.net
Wednesday, August 27, 2008; 4:59 PM

Well, someone stood up for it: the Advertising Standards Authority in UK has ruled that one of the most prominent Apple ( NSDQ: AAPL) iPhone ads is misleading for the consumers, reports BBC. This is the ad which says that "all the parts of the internet are on the iPhone", when in fact it did not support Flash or Java - two programs that form part of many online sites, the authority says. Apple, on the other hand, argued its claim referred to availability of webpages, rather than their specific appearance.

The ASA said the ad "gave a misleading impression of the internet capabilities of the iPhone", and should not be aired again. The ruling was in response to two complaints about it to the firm.

From the ruling: "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. We considered that, because the ad had not explained the limitations, viewers were likely to expect to be able to see all the content on a website normally accessible through a PC rather than just having the ability to reach the website."

The specific UK ad in question, embedded after the jump?