iPhone Ad Banned in UK!

A recent UK iPhone advertisement has been caught up in a controversy of misleading the customers and Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned the ad.

The advertisement features an individual flicking through holiday-related web pages on an iPhone to a voiceover saying: “You never know which part of the Internet you’ll need. The ‘what’s the quickest way to the airport’ part? The ‘what about an ocean view room’ part? Or the ‘can you really afford this’ part? Which is why all the parts of the Internet are on the iPhone.”

2 local viewers in the UK felt that this was deceptive as iPhone does not support Java or Flash applications (2 very essential components for viewing many websites).

In its defense Apple has said “[Apple] believed the ad was not about technical details or the functionalities or plug-ins that were available on the iPhone, but the varied websites that users could visit and utilize.” They said all the websites featured in the ad were available on the iPhone and were shown as they would be seen by the user. They said none of the content in the ad was Flash or Java based and the ad did not mention any other technical capabilities of the iPhone.

ASA claims that the part “You’ll never know which part of the Internet you’ll need” and “all the parts of the Internet are on the iPhone” implied that users would be able to access all websites and see those sites in their entirety, which is very illusory for the customers and have passed the verdict that Apple cannot broadcast the ad in its current form.

Apple declined to comment on the ruling.