ASA Tells Apple To Drop iPhone Ads Over Internet Speed Claims

Apple has been told by UK's Advertising Standards Authority to can its 30-second iPhone 3G TV advert which shows the smartphone loading internet pages within seconds, which according to ASA, doesn't depict actual performance.

17 people complained about the advert to the Advertising sector watchdog over the fact that the advert misled them. Apple's ad said that the smartphone "helps you get the news, really fast", and "download pretty much anything, really fast."

The company responded by saying that the claims were in comparison with the 2G version of the iphone - which was not mentioned at all during the advert - and that the "average customer" would understand that performance would vary according to location.

Apple does have small characters (really small ones) in their UK TV advert which says that "steps [have been] removed and [the] sequence [was] shortened, network speeds may vary" in allusion to the the iPhone network speed.

The advert has now been removed and will not appear again in its current form.