View this article at: http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/08/27/apple.ad.forced.off.of.tv/

Wednesday, Aug 27, 2008 9:05am

Apple ad forced off-air for...

The UK's Advertising Standards Authority has had an Apple ad blocked from British TV, says BBC News. The ad, meant to sell the iPhone, was challenged in two complaints which said that it was misleading. In promoting the iPhone's Safari web browser, Apple claimed that it could deliver "all the parts of the Internet;" the difficulty, according to the complaints, is that the software does not support Flash and Java, which are used at many sites and thereby exclude the iPhone.

The ad therefore "gave a misleading impression of the Internet capabilities of the iPhone," the ASA has ruled, and cannot be shown again without different narration.

"Because the iPhone doesn't support Flash or Java, you couldn't really see the Internet in its full glory," explains ASA spokeswoman Olivia Campbell. "They made a very general claim that you can see the Internet in its entirety, and actually that's not quite true -- so we've upheld." Apple has refused to comment on the issue.