An Apple iPhone advert has been banned by the advertising standards watchdog for exaggerating the phone's speed. The advert boasted the new iPhone 3G model was "really fast" and showed it loading internet pages in under a second. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld complaints by 17 people who said the TV advert had misled them as to its speed.
Apple UK said it was comparing the iPhone 3G model with its 2G predecessor and its claims were "relative not absolute". The advert repeatedly stated that the phone was "really fast" and showed news pages and the Google maps service taking just fractions of a second to appear. Text on the screen said: "Network performance will vary by location." After upholding the viewers' complaints, the ASA said the advert must not appear again in the same form.
It said the advert was likely to lead viewers to believe that the device actually operated at or near to the speeds shown in the advert. The watchdog concluded: "Because we understood that it did not, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead."
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