Sony Ericsson showed phoney Facebook ad

Advertising watchdog finds advert misleading

Phoney Ericsson as been rapped over the knuckles for producing a TV advert for a Facebook phone that couldn't do Facebook.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) agreed with a viewer who complained about the ad for a Satio phone after buying one and finding its Facebook app borked.

The advert showed the screen of the phone sporting icons for a bundle of apps, including one for social notworking site Facebook.

The ASA ruled that Sony Ericsson's use of the Facebook logo was likely to mislead viewers.

Sony Ericsson confessed that the phone could not run Facebook when it was launched because of a bug in the software.

The ASA said: "Because the ad implied the application was either pre-loaded on the phone or would be available to download, and because this was not the case at the time the ad was broadcast, we concluded the ad was misleading."

Sony Ericsson said the Satio software had been sorted and the Facebook application could now be downloaded from its Web site.