The UK's Advertising Standards Authority, an industry regulator has upheld a complaint against Sony Ericsson regarding a recent advert for its Satio smartphone. The advert featurered mobile access to the Facebook social networking website, which could be accessed either via a downloadable application or via the mobile web browser.
The complainant felt that the advert suggested that the phone came pre-loaded with a dedicated application, which would have offered more funcationality than accessing the website via the built-in browser. At the time the phone was sold, there was a problem with the application compatibility with the Sony Ericsson phone, limiting access to the mobile web browser. Since then, Sony Ericsson has fixed the issue and a downloadable app is now available.
The broadcasting agency, Clearcast said they had received assurance from Sony Ericsson that the Facebook application was pre-loaded onto the handset and would not have cleared the ad if they had been aware of the software problem.
The ASA considered that the advert's simultaneous use of the Facebook logo and voice-over saying "Packed with applications and more available to download" was likely to be understood by viewers to mean that the phone either came with the Facebook application or it could be downloaded.
Because the ad implied the application was either preloaded on the phone or would be available to download, and because this was not the case at the time the ad was broadcast, the ASA concluded the ad was misleading.
Sony Ericsson was reminded to ensure that product functionality depicted in ads was accurate at the time the ad was broadcast.
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