[Edward Kirk]

We've just received word from a reader that Apple may be changing their iPhone ads in the UK to be more truthful to avoid a clash with the ASA. A while back we told you about how the ASA in the UK had banned one of Apple's ads from airing on television due to complaints that their claim of the iPhone offering "all the parts of the internet are on the iPhone" was misleading, as it doesn't support Flash or Java.

iPhone Alley reader Ash just informed us that he saw Apple's "Unslow" ad in the UK recently, and it had been altered. Instead of saying "twice as fast", it now says "really fast". He suspects that Apple changed it to avoid another clash with the ASA. Interestingly, the video of "Unslow" on Apple's site still says "twice as fast".

What do you think? Did Apple change the ad to comply with demands from the ASA? We haven't seen the ad ourselves, but it does sound possible.

Apple's UK Iphone ads have always said 'really fast' as opposed to the US ones that say 'twice as fast'. I noted that when the phone was launched and thought this was done because it is more perceivable.

Quite true. The UK version of this ad has always said "really fast". Presumably because O2 cap the speed at a different rate from AT&T and because very few parts of the UK had EDGE so had to put up with dial up GPRS speeds with the original iPhone. They all cap the speed for handhelds alledgedly because allowing 3.6Mbps would harm battery life.

The ad that the ASA ruled on was for the original iPhone and hasn't been aired for months.

[Izzard]

The UK government appears to have taken the matter more seriously and has banned the ads from airing in the country.

Where are you getting 'the UK government' from? This was a ruling by the ASA - they are not the UK government. Their authority comes from the fact that advertisers agree to abide by their rulings. They are a company which takes a cut to make its money. A valuable one, for sure, but they're not the government.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Quite true. The UK version of this ad has always said "really fast". Presumably because O2 cap the speed at a different rate from AT&T and because very few parts of the UK had EDGE so had to put up with dial up GPRS speeds with the original iPhone. They all cap the speed for handhelds alledgedly because allowing 3.6Mbps would harm battery life.

The ad that the ASA ruled on was for the original iPhone and hasn't been aired for months.

Point taken. I still think that the fact that the UK ad says "really fast" was a result of the action taken by the ASA on the "whole internet" ad.

Interesting point about the speed cap though. Must say that I would be very surprised if battery life is the motive for the cap however, I never thought the carriers would be willing to go out of their way to improve battery life for their users.