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What The Banned iPhone Ad Should Really Look Like
Barence writes "To demonstrate just how misleading the latest (and now banned) iPhone television ad really is, PC Pro has recreated it using an iPhone 3G and a Wi-Fi connection — with laughable results. Apple was forced to pull the advert today after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) decided it exaggerated the speed of mobile browsing. 'In the 30-second clip the iPhone is shown loading a webpage, finding its current location in Google Maps, opening a PDF from an email and finally taking a phone call. The ASA concluded that the iPhone cannot do what was shown in the mere 29 seconds afforded in the advert, ruling that it was misleading.' Try it for yourself and you'll undoubtedly agree."
Apple should really be slapped for repeatedly misrepresenting their products. I will buy a beer to anyone who can find a single photo of any of their products on the store website. Every single one has been hand generated usually with incorrect proportions.
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
SOLD, bitches!
The commercial is done by the time they finish with Google.
Maybe if they'd put a warning similar to "screen images simulated, not really an iphone, 5x speed, etc." it wouldn't have been pulled.
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
There's a similar advert for the app store here in the UK. It has some guy instantly downloading and using games, location software and so on. It has an amusing "actual sequence speeded up" disclaimer at the bottom, rather like those cosmetics adverts that say "some post-processing done on model".
Why don't they just say "this advert is a total lie, but it looks pretty and you're a gullible moron, so buy buy buy!"
What bugs me about the app store advert is that it finishes saying "this is going to change everything!" No, it isn't - it's another incremental improvement on smart phones, which is quite similar to many competing products. Ever since I found out about the reality distortion field I've started noticing that Apple try to use this in all their advertising.
Notice that PC Pro had to unlock the phone, whereas Apple already had the phone unlocked. There are other instances in the video where the PC Pro demonstrator fumbled to press the right button. All of these things add up the time significantly. Apple didn't need any special effects at all to cut down on the time PC Pro gives us.
You're telling me there's an organization that actually checks advertisements for false and misleading information, and has the power to pull blatant lies off the air? When did this happen?
End of lesson. You may press the button.
Who doesn't? Went to Wendy's the other day and got a #2 combo because it looked pretty awesome on the order board. Got back to the office and opened it up to discover something pretty gross looking, a mash of squashed bun and grey meat. Yum. This isn't a rare case, and is pretty much the norm of advertising.
Are you as awesome as your resume paints you to be?
Its a shame that the ASA doesn't come down with the same force on the incessant bombardment of beauty treatments we have with obviously fake material in them. I mean there is one for getting rid of deep set wrinkles, in the before shot the actress is frowning, in the after shot she's not. Viola! The wrinkles have gone!
I guess the problem is that the there isn't the degree of competitive scrutiny going on. All of the beauty companies pull the same trick so no one wants to upset the Apple cart.
You may think me a tired, old, cynic. I'd have to disagree about the tired bit.
Err, what? Your link is to your own blog, where you have a post containing nothing but the same unsubstantiated claim you made in this post, followed by a picture of an iPhone that you have mislabeled as a picture of an iPod Touch.
Advertisements not telling the truth.
Next up: Giant footsteps in Alaska not done by Yetis - Signs of prehistoric giantmice found.
In the UK Vodafone are running an advert for the touch screen Blackberry Storm. They show the guy using it to fix a broken neon light he can see on a building opposite. Does this mean that it can do that? Wow!
Seriously the ASA needs to get a grip. The Apple advert was showing the things that could be done with an iPhone 3G. All of the things are possible, perhaps not within the time, but possible. The Blackberry Storm thing isn't possible. Which is banned?
You may think me a tired, old, cynic. I'd have to disagree about the tired bit.
Yea, well some of us don't believe most of the things we see on TV, so I have to ask, why is this news? I don't really think I can drive 60mph on a sheet of ice like I see in BMW commercials all the time, I don't think they should pull their commercials because they are not true.
a little "sequence shortened" white on white text, but it's still misleading, but eh, it's Apple ;)
ads for washing powder where you see dirty shirt, powder, water, and oh! it's clean :)
:)
"you take the shirt, you put it in the water, you wash it you wash it... you riiiince, you riiince. you smell... it smells like a flower!
you take the underwear, you put it in the water, you wash it you wash it... you riiiince, you riiince. you smell... you put it in the water, you wash it you wash it..."
...to 4 inches, apparently!
Next thing you'll be telling me is that the lettuce on the Wendy's Double Stack isn't really that impossibly green and crisp, and the Glade plugin won't instantly make my entire house smell like a rose garden.
It's a commercial people. They have 30 seconds to show you what it can do. It's your responsibility as a consumer to research the product if you're interested in buying it, determine what it's strengths and limitations are. Not just run right out (literally) and buy it because it looked fast and shiny in a commercial.
Are you as awesome as your resume paints you to be?
I'm even awesomer! I left off all the parts about how I can play drums, my massive Spawn toy collection, and my mad pepper-growing skillz.
Haida Manga
Uh their ad showed it to be 4x as good as it really is. If i went to wendys and got a 1/16th pounder i'd be pretty pissed. If on my resume I said I could build a bathroom to finished in 4hours they would likely be disappointed. Beyond that their speed was the WHOLE advertisement.
Thats weird, because I saw the UK advert last night and it states quite clearly at the bottom of the screen that operations have been sped up etc, and does not appear to make any claims to the advert being true to life.... Is this the British ASA or is there an ASA elsewhere in the world (i.e. the USA)?
Most people would view this commercial and think, wow, you can do all that with a phone? I want one!
By the time they have bought it and figured out how to run it, they'll long since have forgotten how speedy it looked in the advert.
Ads aren't supposed to be starkly realistic. Just think how awful they'd all be if they were.
For example, most car companies don't show you the sad realities of operating their vehicles in traffic. I think a realistic portrayal should include an occasional collision ("note how our driver is relatively unhurt, versus the critically injured passengers in the competition's car!").
GM would be more honest if they illustrated "fit and finish" problems in their vehicles. For example, driver gets in new Chevrolet Malibu, turns it on. Engine dies. Cut to scene at dealer's--"We back up our cars, sir; we'll have you out of here within two hours, and at no charge!"
Similarly, show a grandmother trying to turn on her new HP laptop and this "CHECKSUM FAILURE, PRESS F1 TO CONTINUE" screen appears. She calls HP and a nice man with a south Asian accent talks her through the problem (which involves reseating a SIMM).
In general, you almost NEVER encounter the kind of courteous, perfect service and incredible product quality as illustrated in ads. Ads don't reflect reality; they're a kind of allegorical story designed to make you want to buy the product while lying as much as they can get away with.
I think overall that they were just picking on Apple and the ad should have run.
it's = "it is"; its = possessive. E.g., it's flapping its wings.
Don't start replies with Uh. It's combative and makes you look like a dink.
I'm hardly defending Apple here, but I think "4x as good" is rather ridiculous. While you seem to think a 1lb'r would be "4x as good" as a 1/4lb, in the Wendy's example I consider what I got 1/10th as satisfying as what's promised on the board (and it would be even worse if they just stuck more meat on it). Instead of a burger bursting with delicious veg, I got some piece of crap that I considered just tossing.
The ad had someone doing tasks at a rate that no one would ever do them. No, people don't jump around pages like that generally, scrolling a PDF for a second and looking up an address (with zero text entry) in milliseconds, instantly absorbing it.
Which is why it was an obvious exaggeration, which is pretty much the case for virtually all ads. I'd rather all ads were a lot more honest (in the case of fast food restaurants it should require random photos of randomly served dishes at regular intervals), but it seems a bit laughable to make such a big deal out of Apple.
So there's a line for "acceptable lies" and "too much of a lie"?
Because, if you know any TV ad that does not paint the product in a better light than the real world, I'd really like a youtube link. Yes, it is misleading. That's what advertisement is all about, isn't it? Yeah, that supermodel has really great hair after using that shampoo... and two conditioners (not shown), a very expensive hairdresser (not shown) and two hours in the make-up room (not shown). Let's not even get started about car ads.
I guess the only reason this is news is that the iPhone is hot and shampoo isn't.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
This ruling was made in the UK. We have slightly different advertising standards to the US. In the UK, the sort of thing you're suggesting is not allowed:
I will give you all 1 million dollars* for reading this post!
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*1 million imaginary dollars
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
It is the norm. It should not be.
I believe that the standard should be that the advertisement must show an accurate representation of the average product as it will be delivered to the consumer. To do otherwise, is fraud.
That includes Wendy's and all the rest of the fast-food crowd. In fact, pretty much all food advertising. (Many years ago the Wall Street Journal had a very funny article about making food adverts. Jello was mixed at several times the usual concentration to keep it solid under the lights. Tensions got high on the set and someone hurled a jello chunk at someone else. The other person ducked and the jello rebounded off the wall like a superball.)
How about stores? I sure wish the nearby Safeway were bright, clean and open instead of old, dingy and cramped.
The before/after pics for weight-loss schemes would be pretty funny.
Oh, sorry. Lost myself for a moment there. Forgot that it is our Patriotic Duty to buy into the advertising fantasies in order to keep the economic fantasy growing.
~~~~~~~
"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
The RDF failed!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_distortion_field
Given that PC Pro News uses Vibrant "mouse over" pop-ups and does not allow them to be disabled, they are in absolutely no place to complain about ANYONE's advertising.
... was the instability of Safari - I'm currently away from the office on a week long business trip, with my iPhone acting as my primary browsing device during the day (while I'm away from the hotel - London has fairly extensive 3G and wifi coverage), and I have to say that I am getting at least one crash per browsing session.
I would expect this if I was visiting weird websites, but I'm talking about sites like Slashdot, BBC News etc. The entire page can be loaded, and I can be halfway through a Slashdot comments page and Safari will crash, I haven't even hit anything that should trigger Safari to do anything other than scroll down the page!
On another note, on every iPhone or iPod Touch device I have used (one first gen iPhone, one 3G iPhone and two iPod Touches), Safari has one hell of a difficult time picking up link clicks on the BBC News website - I haven't had any problems elsewhere, just on the BBC News site. It manifests itself as a total lack of registering the fact that I am clicking on a link, with Safari only reacting at all either after I have held down the click for several seconds, or zoomed right in and clicked then. Has anyone else experienced this?
"Are you as awesome as your resume paints you to be?" Oh, much more so :)
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it seems a bit laughable to make such a big deal out of Apple.
I've been saying that for decades now. Since even before 1984 and the wonderful Macintosh.
You're HIRED!
Quite right.
It was 4.86 times faster, cooler and better. In the PC Pro video it looked like celebrities in one of those "with&without makeup" slideshows.
De-glamored and like just another mobile phone. Which nobody really needs.
Not at all like something hand-sculpted from pieces of the true cross and philosopher's stone by (female) virgins gently rubbing their pelvises over the aforementioned imaginary artifacts.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
their ad showed it to be 4x as good as it really is
No, it really doesn't. First, you are exaggerating, considering that the ratio between the Apple ad and the PCPro recreation is lower than 3:1, not the 4:1 you're claiming. Second, the PCPro recreation is unfair because they attached a rather large file to e-mail which slanted the results--had they used a real-life attachment it'd have been very close to 2:1.
"We can categorically state we have not released man-eating badgers into the area." - UK military spokesman, July 2007
Yes. I tell the truth. ("Telling the truth" doesn't mean bad in any case.)
In the 30-second clip the iPhone is shown loading a webpage, finding its current location in Google Maps, opening a PDF from an email and finally taking a phone call.
What??? You can actually use it to make phone calls? I'm off to an Apple store!
Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.
That's very noble of you. However the whole spirit of the resume is, at its core, lying by omission. Which is why companies don't really put much credibility on it.
KFC?
Lower than 3:1? It's 4.86:1.
PC Pro / Apple Ad = (2*60+21)/29 = 4.86.
That's closer to 5.
Just to make sure I have this right, do you mean to imply that telling people how they should express themselves is not combative and does not make you look like a "dink"? Or is this more of an "it's okay when I do it" situation?
I think the only reason why Apple might appear exceptional is because they were required to pull the ads. Normally advertisers use various propaganda techniques to give a certain impression that may be true or false but they do it without actually making verifiably false statements. They might say "9 out of 10 dentists recommend brand X toothpaste!" instead of "9 out of 10 dentists recommend brand X toothpaste after we paid them a large amount of money!" even though both would be true and even though they only asked 10 individuals instead of doing anything remotely like a proper study of a representative sample.
I very much like your idea about fast-food advertisements. I don't think the burgers in the ads are even edible most of the time (lots of plastic or other things you really wouldn't want to eat) although I regret that I don't have a source/reference handy. Advertising in general, or at least the way it is currently done, is something that I believe a more enlightened society would view as either a great evil or at least a corrupting influence. It's a happy smiling face on what is straight up manipulation and the power of its influence is often underestimated. If it were otherwise, then why the need to exaggerate, misrepresent, and selectively omit facts (not just talking about Apple)?
Healthy people who can think for themselves don't need to be constantly told what to eat, what to drink, where to go, what to buy, for whom to vote, etc. They just need to know what their options are, which is a far simpler affair. To give what I hope isn't a bad analogy, it would be more like "client pull" and less like "server push". I consider obsolete or irrelevant any business model that would collapse if this were the norm, no matter how large or widespread it may be.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
Son, if this is how you think a good cell phone is created... well, lets just say you appear to have a few serious issues that would be best dealt with in long term counseling.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Most major sites with slow-loading pages suffer from "Web 2.0 overload". Page loads usually hang not because the requested URL isn't being served fast enough, but because some additional file is needed and isn't being served fast enough. When Slashdot pages are loading slowly, for example, you'll usually see "Waiting for pagead2.googlesyndication.com", "Waiting for ad.greenmarquee.net", "Waiting for ad.doubleclick.net", "Waiting for ad.yieldmanager.com", or "Waiting for m1.2mdn.net". That's where the load delays come from. Cacheing doesn't help, because those services want to serve a different ad every time.
Then there's CSS. The business about CSS speeding up page loading was crap. We're seeing pages that load ten or fifteen CSS files, often from sites that don't load all that fast. Handheld devices don't have the cache capacity of desktops, so the odds that something big, like Google Widgets, will have to be reloaded is reasonably high.
Then there's "onload", where, after the base page is loaded, an XMHHttpRequest is made to get more info. Now you have serial delays; the browser can't parallelize the loads. A good example is RushmoreDrive, the "black search engine" Ask is trying as a niche product. Slowest loading home search page in the industry. Look at the HTML and you'll see why.
If Apple wants faster load times, they should put ad blocking in the iPhone's browser. That would cut page load times way down on ad-heavy sites.
i didn't read what ASA said, but I watched the ad. What puts it over the edge is that the voice-over is entirely about how 3g is great because it makes everything "really fast." The words "really fast" are repeated 3 or 4 times, and used as the tag-line at the end of the commercial. so the commercial isn't just advertising the iphone in general; it's specifically advertising how fast it is, along with a demonstration of how fast it is. except that demonstration is fake.
for the wendy's comparison, imagine if wendy's ran a commercial with the pictures of the food that you saw and had a voice over saying "wendy's has great looking hamburgers. they look really good. they are fantastic looking hamburgers." Whereas the pictures on the menu are just representing their food in a ludicrously positive light, that commercial would be outright lying.
I routinely purge my resume of unnecessary jobs/references... I prefer to keep it short and concise.. my current job as a DBA isn't dependent or related to the years I spent as a C/C++/C# programmer, but it *ahem* does make me more awesome
Hi, I Boris. Hear fix bear, yes?
We should now all go and test these awesome features at the nearest store. It's Nokia vs Apple, and I'm seeing a holiday coming up. I'm hearing there will be a lot of sales around tomorrow too.
Two minutes and 21. That's, like, an eternity.
How is it in other parts of the world? Has anyone seen that speedy ad today?
I'm in sweden, doing what I'd never do otherwise, changing channels on my tv to watch the commercials...
(if TFA answers my question, my bad for not reading it)
Do you really expect the viewers to sit and wait for everything to load?
This ad is as legitimate as sports highlights, and the "really fast" slogan might as well have been attributed to the ease of use rather that the actual download speeds.
Wow, does PC Pro have the slowest wi-fi I have ever seen. My 2G iphone handily outruns their 3G/wi-fi setup.
Also I saw an ad for Viagra today. It showed a guy sailing a yacht, driving a convertible down a twisty lane, and golfing all in 30 seconds. Pretty frickin amazing what those pills can do, huh?
Don't start replies with Uh.
Correct as you are, I can't help but giggle at the irony :P
All food shown by Wendies has to be edible. I wonder if the iPhone in that ad could actually be used.
Okay, that was BS.
I'm certain that Apple sped things up for the commercial. Big whoop. But I would have been a lot more sympathetic if PC Pro had done anywhere near a realistic comparison.
The ad starts with the phone unlocked, and the user opening Safari to a pre-loaded page. The fumbling PC Pro fingers slowly unlock the phone and go to Google to find the page, rather than even entering the URL or opening a bookmark!
How about a realistic comparison? I'd like to see how fast the iPhone can work, not how slow your damn sausage-fingers are at molesting it.
WARNING: iPhone 3G browsing speeds may be impeded if you're an idiot.
NO! YOU're HIRED!
Of Code And Men
The Grauniad has an item which gives some insight into how the ad came to be banned: Here
Seems to me Apple didn't really defend this one very appropriately, but then again, who cares?
The whole problem with "lying by omission" is that, if you accept that as a valid concept, it follows that no one ever tells the truth, given that practical communications require the omission of details. A complete description of what I did this morning would require the rest of our lives for me to relate to you if I didn't omit details. Communications are only practical when I omit most of the details.
Assuming I honestly include all details I feel are relevant, I think the statement that "the whole spirit of the resume is...lying by omission" is just plain false. A resume shouldn't be more than two pages, ideally it should be one page. It shouldn't include long lists of irrelevant details. Someone should be able to quickly scan it and see what qualifies you for the job in question. If it has your complete life story instead, it should be thrown in the trash without being read, since it demonstrates your inability to determine what's relevant.
And yes, I am significantly more awesome than my resume would suggest. ;) A complete description of my work history would not be readable, even quickly, in the 30 seconds max you get before an employer throws your resume into the keeper or toss-out pile.
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
You forget that those burgers are paid professional models (I mean, take a look at their buns!) Do they have to be taken up close? And those bottled drinks...do they always have to glisten with small drops of sweat?
I heard some of them were real bitchy divas too...
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
oh....sry....I forgot where I was.
In my opinion, Apple is worse than Microsoft. They're dishonest, and love being uber-closed. Yeah, they do use some open source stuff, but their hardware and software platforms are pretty closed. And with advertising dishonesty like this, they're doing the same thing Microsoft did with the whole "vista-capable" thing...
2:21 vs :29 is a ratio of 5.13::1. If attaching a lighter email would shave ten seconds off (I don't think it would), the ratio would still be 4.5::1. This is 3rd grade level math.
Everyone around me is getting iPhones. How can you guys that buy the smartphones/iPhones and afford the usual 30+ monthly for the data plans?
I mean, no one has told me this but if you are in fact getting laid because you have an iPhone, I will certainly get the iPhone and data plan. Can anyone confirm this?
Until then I'll stick with ebaying my phones.
There advertising is deceptive. As mentioned above, yes you do go to Wendy's and get a shitty looking burger compared to the picture, but it's still food and your not buying it for looks.
If they said my Junior Bacon cheeseburger could download 5 pdfs and browse google maps while uploading pictures all at the same time and it didn't. I'd be a little pissed.
iPhone are neat but I hate the way there the new Moto Razor.
The problem is not that apple was lieing about the performance of the iphone, it's that the ad doesn't have the legal loophole words. 'performance may vary', 'closed course, professional driver', etc either printed or spoken.
Make their commercials for accurate Internet speeds. :P Apple is rich enough. Even better, do it during SuperBowl day.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Is there a difference between regular wi-fi and 3G networks? In terms of speed? I'm pretty sure the ad was using a 3G network where PC Pro was just using wi-fi...
I think it's an evolutionary result, though. Industrial manufacturing introduced a glut of consumer goods to the world, and made it possible that multiple players could be in the same market trying to sell essentially the same thing, or at least the same thing with normally imperceptible differences. One company who advertises could take a market-share far disproportionate to the comparative advantage they have against a company with a similar product, but no advertising. Increased publicity ability gave the means, and anyone outside the competition really just can't compete.
Information wants to be free.
Entertainment wants to be paid.
You just want to be cheap.
This is what I love about linux, ubuntu and the whole community, honestly. They don't do much adverts instead we rely on blogs where products are filmed operating in real time and even if it crashes so be it. This should be our motto:
Open Source, not out to get you.
I can't believe fanboys are still defending Apple in case.
But... the future refused to change.
I can do all those things on my iPhone 3G and at the same time drive my car at 100 mph over twisty mountain roads while an exhausted super model runs her hand over my ultra smooth face (which I shaved in one stroke with my 9 bladed razor) and tells me how great I shag since I started taking Erectzor.
Anyone who can't is a pansy.
Life needs more saving throws.
If i went to wendys and got a 1/16th pounder i'd be pretty pissed.
My very first summer job was working at a Wendy's. There were various "stations" where you could work (with the guy on the grill being pretty much the pinnacle unless you were one of the managers), one of which was the sandwich area - which involved putting together the burgers with patties, condiments, and whatever specific toppings the customer ordered.
Sometimes when I was feeling particularly bitter about the fast food industry, I'd deliberately put together one of the drive-thru orders with no meat on the buns ... I'd be very careful in getting everything else about the order right but no patties. It amazed me how many people didn't come back to complain when they opened their meatless burger somewhere down the road.
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
At least on the iPhone advert you can do everything that the advert shows, it just takes a little longer. Indeed it took me longer to load the PCPro website on my laptop just now than it did on their video - not the best choice of comparison website methinks...
The Axe adverts aren't even based in reality. I don't become as attractive as chocolate (that advert is disgusting to be honest, it's more offensive than most adverts, it's gross, I hope it gets banned under the new disgusting pornographic imagery law), not immediately, not even after a week of wearing it or bathing in it. Indeed Axe smells so disgusting that I am sure it drives women away. Maybe they add pheromones or something to it. I think carrying a kitten with you would be far more effective in attracting women.
As a side note, the iPhone adverts in the UK have had a disclaimer on the bottom of the advert saying that they cut out some steps and stuff in order to fit it into the advert. This has been for a few weeks at least, so Apple acted proactively it seems in regard to these adverts.
Now what about the adverts from Samsung and Blackberry about their phones that show the same stuff?
I once saw a documentation about how they make the photos you see on convenience food packaging. The tomato soup with a cream swirl was actually 100% toxic-if-ingested wall paint. Other dishes were either made by cooks (of course using completely different recipes) or weren't food at all. Don't think only models get airbrushed; food does, as well. With clear varnish, during the shoot.
I mean, some car manufacturer recently ran a TV ad in Germany where they deconstructed the usual car ad by gradually switching off the humans (all professional models), the beautiful scenery (completely computer-generated), the brilliant highlights on the car (ditto), the majestic music and finally the street. I don't remember which car it was but the ad strikes me as insightful - it shows just how much of the ads you see has to do with the actual car (not much at all, not even the car's appearance is realistic).
Ads lie. Ads lie all the time. Do not expect anything you hear in an ad to be remotely true, apart fom "product XYZ exists".
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
It's way better than fast food!
That slogan offends me.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
I wrote it with the complete awareness that it made me look like an asshole, but I'm willing to take that insult. I am also quite the dink in many of my comments, so I'm not claiming to be above it -- my constructive criticism was meant to stand on its own.
"Uh" just always starts off a message on the wrong foot. It is generally used as compacted, less obvious replacement for "OMG! You are so stupid and you don't even see it. [Looks around] Is everyone with me here?" Simply removing that single word has an amazing ability to turn a combative , derisive reply into actual debate.
Imagine this reply if it were started with "Uh".
"Uh I wrote it with the complete awareness that it made me look like an asshole"
...Dishonest, or just incompetent. The same goes for the UK Ad council responsible for demanding the ad be pulled. I couldn't help but make a video this morning to see what the results should really look like...
Try 48 secs and that is with me flubbing a bit, waiting for GPS to lock and timing a call to myself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwbZkkJhfcA
I don't even like my iPhone that much, but there are better reasons to dislike it than simply fabricated, untruthful criticisms.
We apologise for the fault in this post. Those responsible have been sacked. -- Signed RICHARD M. NIXON
I'm hardly defending Apple here, but I think "4x as good" is rather ridiculous. While you seem to think a 1lb'r would be "4x as good" as a 1/4lb, in the Wendy's example I consider what I got 1/10th as satisfying as what's promised on the board (and it would be even worse if they just stuck more meat on it). Instead of a burger bursting with delicious veg, I got some piece of crap that I considered just tossing.
10x size and 5x speed are objective measures. Your satisfaction is subjective and personally defined.
The ad had someone doing tasks at a rate that no one would ever do them. No, people don't jump around pages like that generally, scrolling a PDF for a second and looking up an address (with zero text entry) in milliseconds, instantly absorbing it.
Sometimes you're in a hurry, and you know what you want. I hate wasting my time waiting for my computer and other devices.
Dr Superlove 300ml. I use my powers for awesome
That's why the ad had a countdown timer at the bottom of the screen showing how long it took to perform those tasks. Oh, wait. It didn't.
What it did do is claim that you can accomplish these tasks quickly by using an iPhone communicating at 3g speeds.
what do you mean those ads aren't real? Just Great. Next thing you guys will be posting up that those bud light ads that show really hot chicks hanging out with guys who drink bud light isn't real either.
I gotta run... i'm need to pick up another 6pack of bud light... i'm almost out.
Absolutely. The ad was saying that the iPhone is "really fast", in some completely unstated, ambiguous way, while showing someone doing some stuff. Do I expect to do what the person in the ad could do? Well firstly they'd have to put disclaimers saying "transfer rates depend upon your carrier/WiFi, network congestion, and the speed of the serving party", whether content is cached, the size of the PDF, the number and type of images, and so on and so forth. There was zero objective anything provided by that Apple ad, and instead it's people extrapolating out.
You'll get no disagreement. I wish everything was instant. But I appreciate that it isn't, and in ads it is sadly the norm to gloss over....reality.
I have an iphone and a supermodels hand on my cock right now. There are no mountains near me though, I am so not cool.
This isn't a rare case, and is pretty much the norm of advertising.
While technically true, I'm more of a glass half-empty sort of guy: I say that the norm is for poor product delivery - and seems to apply to more than just the fast food gang. The trouble isn't that advertising exaggerates (which it does) - the problem is that the products are lousy and rather than improve product, the dollar-dollar-bill-y'all goes to advertising.
Pathological kinda promises Path + Logical - but instead, you get stuck with pathetic.
...is that I shot the video, edited it in iMovie and uploaded it to youtube in about as much time as PCPro took to 'recreate' the ad in the first place... all of about 5 minutes.
That in itself is a better ad for Apple than anything they have come up with in some time ^_^
We apologise for the fault in this post. Those responsible have been sacked. -- Signed RICHARD M. NIXON
They only have a 30 second spot to show off all the phone's most important features.
It makes no sense to show a "loading" screen for 15 seconds of an Ad, doing that doesn't present its selling point (the features).
If skipping the boring parts/not showing annoying parts in an ad is misrepresentation, then there are a lot of companies guilty of this.
If you want to know how well a product really performs in actual use, you don't use the advertising -- you either get a 30 day trial on the product or you find independent third-party reviews.
Maybe you created some vegetarians.
In real life the iPhone is a little slower, but not really even 2x from the ad - the PC pro actions had the following errors in a test that meant to duplicate the ad:
1) Pc Pro started with screen locked.
2) The Apple ad started with a web page that was previously cached before they clicked on a link. The Pc Pro guys started from google, had to type in the URL, then wait for the page to load... that was a HUGE chunk of time over what the ad was doing.
3) Apple ad zoomed into a portion of the page by double tapping, PC Pro guys sloooowly zoomed using two fingers (with a double hand technique showing the iPhone is about as familiar to them as a flying saucer)
4) The PC Pro map load was about right, but then again they slooowly zoom in....
5) I'm wondering just how large that PC Pro PDF was.
Basically between the two videos, both are not accurate and I agree with pulling the Apple ad - but the Apple ad is way more representative of real world use than the PC Pro video. I don't see you (or anyone else chastising Apple) complaining about those missteps, I wonder what your motivations could be... Apple Hater.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
When was the last time you got a cheeseburger from Wendy's that looked like the one they advertise on TV?
Kiteboarding Gear Mention slashdot and get 10% off!
Maybe it's meant to reflect the actual user experience, but they spend a lot more time diking around with websites than the iPhone add. They load two webpages instead of one, and spend time scrolling around those webpages, where as the add merely shows the phone zooming in. They also enter the URL manually, while the add shows them only loading a link. They also spend time scrolling around the PDF document, while in the add the user receives a call immediately after the PDF has loaded. Not to mention that they obviously used different sites and files. They also started from the unlock screen instead of the home screen. You can't call something a recreation if you didn't even try to recreate the add.
Why didn't they actually try to recreate the add ? The iPhone is obviously not that fast over a 3G network (though it is that fast over a 802.11 connection in my experience). What is it about journalists that makes them think they need to exaggerate things that are already plenty bad?
iphone users are goddamned entitled douchebag faggots
Maybe they went to McDonald's, instead.
Is this the same ASA that refuses to ban ISP adverts that say "Unlimited blah blah" and in the small print say "capped at 1G blah blah"?
Pity the ASA can't be more consistent, and sort out the ISPs too.
Why the counseling?
I think that if that situation was presented in nokia's contract, much better engineering and engineers would work there.
Time will tell.
NO SIG
Sucks for you, in California we have In-n-out.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
Obvious to who? Someone who is seeing all these Apple ads and talking about how much "different" and "better" the iPhone is? Looking up an address without text entry? Might be "obvious" that there's some kind of "automagically linking addresses in text", or "copy and paste", but there's not, too. The selling point of this ad was just how, quote, "really really fast" everything was on an iPhone, except it's not, not anywhere near as fast as the ad implies.
...especially those who insult me, but to make it clear, it is not a question of the ad being truthful so much as PCPro being full of shit. If you cannot understand the difference, then you are the dense one. If I can recreate the series of actions in 48 secs on my first 'attempt' then PCPro is clearly distorting the 'truth'.
Unless you are simply biased, and note I am the first to say that the iPhone is not the second coming, to criticize any company's advertising on such a tiny, nit-picking issue is moronic. It is not like they said it will cook you breakfast. And I have no doubt I could pare down a few more seconds in order to have an actual 30 second commercial spot. AND they had a fucking disclaimer for christ sake...
Thanks for participating...
We apologise for the fault in this post. Those responsible have been sacked. -- Signed RICHARD M. NIXON
I very much like your idea about fast-food advertisements. I don't think the burgers in the ads are even edible most of the time (lots of plastic or other things you really wouldn't want to eat) although I regret that I don't have a source/reference handy.
Most car commercials nowadays don't even have real cars in them. Misrepresenting a product is one thing, but most of these adverts don't even contain the real product they're advertising. Some food commercials actually use real cooked food, but it's made by a professional food photographer in their kitchen and made to look like the ideal food product. anyone who believes that WYSIWYG when it comes to advertising really needs to hone their critical thinking skills... But then again, I probably wouldn't be so enticed to go to Wendy's if I saw a real employee putting together a real burger.
Axe deodorant and body spray doesn't cause hordes of hot, horny women to pounce on me. News at eleven.
C'mon folks, when was there ever an advertisement that didn't misrepresent the product? Remember the late night infomercials for the "not sold in stores" products (that are actually sold in stores). I wish companies were more honest about their products, but people should never purchase something based on a commercial alone. You also need to go by word of mouth, in-store experience, and unbiased reviews.
Best "String" Ever!
It's an ad about a $200+ phone, demonstrating how fast the phone is, but the performance displayed was beyond what the phone is physically capable of.
I don't think the burger comparison is even worth pursuing; that was a $5 burger at a fast food outlet, and theoretically an employee who took the time to make a good one could have given you a burger that looked like the advertised one.
It's more like if Dell advertised a laptop with hardware specs from 2 years ago and showed it playing Crysis at 40fps. When you got home and your frame rate was 10fps you wouldn't think "oh it's just an ad, I should have expected them to exaggerate the performance"
// MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
Just to make sure I have this right, do you mean to imply that telling people how they should express themselves is not combative and does not make you look like a "dink"? Or is this more of an "it's okay when I do it" situation?
So... let's have a little respect here? I appears you were repaid in kind and you didn't like it.
Who doesn't? Went to Wendy's the other day and got a #2 combo because it looked pretty awesome on the order board.
Got back to the office and opened it up to discover something pretty gross looking, a mash of squashed bun and grey meat. Yum.
I actually worked at Wendy's back in high school, and we did a challenge once where we tried to make the food look like the 'order board' to use your words. Turns out its not that hard... but
1) You had to use fresh toasted buns straight off the toaster
2) You had to 'cherry pick' things like lettuce and tomatoes.
3) You had to have someone who really knew how to work 'grill' to get perfect looking meat.
4) Most importantly - you couldn't wrap it up. You had to serve it unwrapped. Wrapping ALWAYS squashes it to at least some degree, and meat drippings and condiment get spread to the wrapper.
That said, a significant percentage of burgers actually look a lot like the advertising, prior to wrapping, when made by competent staff.
So...I'm not saying Wendy's isn't false advertising, but in their case at least, the real food CAN actually look like the ads, even though it usually doesn't. So at least they aren't showing food that simply can't come out of their 'kitchens'.
Don't pretend you don't want one.
Maybe they went to McDonald's, instead.
I doubt it. We did the same thing, hoping that they would go to Wendy's...
Ok look just because other companies lie in their advertisements doesn't make it ok for Apple to lie. The fact is that they did the wrong thing. If you caught a politician lying or cheating the media wouldn't be saying "no big deal since they all do it". They did the wrong thing, its news. Not all adverts get pulled due to false advertising.
Wait, I thought Jetson wasn't rehired until Act 3... Oh, never mind, we haven't even cycled through the ritual firing in Act 2.
That brand was BMW...It was indeed a pretty insightful ad. The point was "come and test it and convince yourself". Alas, that's just another sales tactic. If you've got the customer testing a car, the sale is pretty much done.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
Or is this more of an "it's okay when I do it" situation?
At least he is consistent. It's okay for he/she and Apple.
Huh...
Do you have problem with "huh" too?
If it were otherwise, then why the need to exaggerate, misrepresent, and selectively omit facts (not just talking about Apple)?
As soon as the first dishonest salesman came into existence, all salesmen had to become dishonest or be forced out of business.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
In truth, the time taken to complete the tasks is somewhere between what Apple showed in the advert and what PC Pro showed in their recreation.
In my tests, it's much closer to the Apple version of events.
Ask yourself of the PC Pro version:
1) Why did they start with the phone locked?
2) Why did they not start with the page they wanted to view as the starting page in Safari?
3) Why did they not use timesonline.co.uk for a like-for-like comparison?
4) How large was the PDF they downloaded?
In other words, why did they choose to be deliberately misleading in the other direction?
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something" - Plato
Your link is to your own blog, where you have a post containing nothing but the same unsubstantiated claim you made in this post...
On top of that, the claim is refutable. The iPod looks narrower because of the curved shape. The guy is using a 2D measurement to disprove a 3D claim. It'd be like if I took a photo of the Empire State Building and claimed it was 50 feet tall because I took a mailbox in the same picture and copied/pasted it a few times until they were equal heights.
It's easy to disprove, really. Just make a 3d model and do a perspective vs. orthographic render. The ortho (2D) version's fatter.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
who zooms like that? I guess what they're saying is Apple should have made the ad showing how a complete 'tard with zero coordination can't navigate a web page very quickly.
Quantifying "goodness" hasn't really got much to do with it. Here are a few things to consider.
1. The main point of the ad, no the whole point of it was how fast the iPhone performed.
2. It is not a case of puffery, but appears to be an entirely formal and objective demonstration.
3. They used an edited video to show off the fast performance despite the fact that the phone is not capable of performing like that.
you'd be able to eat your 1/16th pounder 4 times as fast though! omm...finished. whereas the suckers who buy a 1/4 pounder will still be eating for ages. omnomnomnom.
"Advertising in general, or at least the way it is currently done, is something that I believe a more enlightened society would view as either a great evil or at least a corrupting influence."
More enlightened society does view it as a corrupting influence, 'evil' being a term that's generally avoided in said society. If you look at trends in comtemporary philosophy/cultural theory you'll find a number of critics of this, a part of what they label as 'the culture of capitalism' or 'late capitalism', from Theodor Adorno (stanford encyclopedia of philosophy entry) to Fredric Jameson.
Interestingly, society is neither enlightened nor interested in becoming enlightened (the criticism is there and instead of either reacting and modifying the system to fix the problems or replacing the system completely, whatever floats your boat, we are in denial about the existance of what's literally in our face every day), so this is what we're stuck with.
Not even mentionning that the iPhone used is not an iPhone 3G but an iPhone Edge (CPU speed and other factors actually do matter in these tests) and that the demo starts with the iPhone turned off in the PCPro demo. And they don't zoom with double tap, they go to "big" websites, etc...
I am not saying the Apple version was realistic, but hey, the PCPro one is just as biaised in the other direction.
Write boring code, not shiny code!
What about those ads that show cool froods downloading a movie in 4 seconds? Isn't that false advertising too?!
But they weren't just advertising it's features, they were advertising that the iPhone is "really fast" repeatedly while doing it. If the guy was talking about what he was doing without reference to the speed it'd be another matter. From the ASA, via the article: "We noted the voice-over claim "really fast" was used in conjunction with each of the functions shown in the visuals. Although we noted the on-screen text disclaimer, "network performance will vary by location", we considered that the visuals, in conjunction with the repeated use of the claim "really fast", were likely to lead viewers to believe that the device actually operated at or near to the speeds shown in the ad. Because we understood that it did not, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead."
It's amazing the excuses people will make for corporate misbehaviour. It's a sort of Stockholm Syndrome on a societal scale.
Not to be an apologist for apple, but I think it is more interesting to notice that every advertisement makes subliminal claims to make their product seem more appealing. Good-looking, happy people. CG touch-ups to make-up ads, CG changes to cars (even ones that are photographed stationary) to show their wheels blurred to give the impression that it's moving quickly - all ways to manipulate you into wanting to buy things.
All (good) advertisements nowadays are trying to associate their product with something positive that isn't necessarily associated with their product by default. For better or worse, that's pretty much what we're stuck with.
Well duh, of course cell phones are not made this way, which is why the iPhone is so superior.
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
...even though MacInTalk required a Mac with 512K of RAM and the Mac being introduced in January, 1984 had only 128K... and no model capable of running MacInTalk would be released until late that year.
Lots and lots and lots of companies run misleading ads. Apple is one of them. It not only reprehensible whenever anyone does it, but in the United States it is against the law.
The FTC Act of 1914 made unfair or deceptive acts or practices unlawful, and charged the FTC with enforcement. It's been decades since they've provided any meaningful enforcement. The FTC ought to start doing its job.
They could start with the ads for homeopathic medicines.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Please don't spread this around. I'm rather hoping that the advertising agencies take this as a "we're going to come down harder on misleading advertising" rebuke rather than a "you didn't use enough weasel words" rebuke. People like you might give them the wrong idea, no matter how true.
I wondered why Kate Moss appeared to have lost her right arm.
"The fumble to press the right button" is not the fault of PC Pro, it's the fiddly nature multitouch interface. Also, notice how the screen froze for a few seconds when it was resized. All this just makes the PC Pro video a very realistic simulation of how the iPhone performs in real life
I was testing the exact same thing. PCPro stated they were using WiFi. I am not arguing the validity of the ad, so much as the PCPro 'recreation.' I have not seen the original ad, other than the inset window in the comparison and only did my best to follow the same sequence of events: open web browser and click a link, close then open google maps and click the GPS 'locate' function, waiting for it to 'zero in', close then open an email, view an attached PDF then wait for and answer an incoming call. From what I can tell, that is exactly what happens in the ad, no typing in and such seemed to occur.
As to pre-generated data, I do not know what you mean, as I did everything live, on-the-fly. Another poster mentioned something salient, which is that the voice over on the ad might be describing actions that are not exactly represented in the spot, but again, there is supposedly a disclaimer anyways, which makes the whole issue rather pedantic and nit-picking on behalf of the UK ad watchdog group.
Does the UK tolerate 'teeth whitening' ads? Mileage claims for cars? This just seems so ridiculous and from the article it is clear that it only takes a dozen or so 'complaints' from god-knows-who to get an ad pulled. I don't suppose any of those 17 complaints came from other carriers or manufacturers...
We apologise for the fault in this post. Those responsible have been sacked. -- Signed RICHARD M. NIXON
I dare you to post any identifying info about yourself so that we may actually have a worthwhile conversation without your having the benefit of anonymity. Then I would like to see you say the same thing and stand behind your empty rhetoric. Not only are you way off base, I am not even upset by your childish, snide remarks. I do wish you well on this Thanksgiving and hope you might think twice, next time, and reflect on the state of the world before you unnecessarily fill it with your meaningless anger and venom. I could care less about Apple, but I do care about right and wrong and do my best to share factually correct information to those who care to listen.
Kind regards
We apologise for the fault in this post. Those responsible have been sacked. -- Signed RICHARD M. NIXON
Uh... I think he was referring to the fact that your reply started with "Uh" in the quote box, thus doing the very thing that you advised against.
And you're welcome.
I don't think the burger comparison is even worth pursuing; that was a $5 burger at a fast food outlet, and theoretically an employee who took the time to make a good one could have given you a burger that looked like the advertised one.
Assuming said employee had access to toothpicks, Elmer's glue, food coloring, clear epoxy, road salt and black paint, I hope you meant. Food in commercials is constructed like skyscrapers.
Kind of related, about 10 years ago in Australia Telstra was heavily pushing satellite and radio based internet (no higher than 256kbps) to farmers. One of their ads showed the stereotypical farmer family giggling around the computer looking at a bunch of sheep drinking from a water trough somewhere on their farm in a web browser. High resolution, very high frame rate, dvd quality. On the quiet Telstra had their fingers burned big time for spewing such bullshit, a revised advert was shown with the same scene a few weeks later, but very pixelated and at about 1 frame per second.
Nice to see consumer watchdogs orgs doing their bit, even better to see them getting it right in technology fields. I'd like to think that the iPhone crap wouldn't fly in Australia, but times have changed. I've since moved to Asia where there are absolutely no laws at all that cover truth in advertising. Your iPhone looks even more absurd here.
Actually, PC Pro's is an iPhone 3G. They're just using WiFi (which technically means it should be faster).
And if it started with the iPhone being off, it would be considerably more painful (it was in standby, not off).
Let's face it, both ads were "doctored" in favour of their viewpoint. But to be honest I do see the examples shown in the Apple ad taking around a minute to a minute and a half at least.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
It's an ad about a $200+ phone, demonstrating how fast the phone is,
I see it more as an ad demonstrating the variety of things it can do. As much as I hate apple, the misleading part appears to be a side effect in this case.
Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite (TM)
This is dumb. I'm not the biggest iPhone fan out there, but anybody who expects commercials to be realistic deserves to be disappointed. Does Axe body spray get its ads pulled for being unrealistic? They are, unless it's actually true and Axe is capable of causing girls to throw themselves at you (I've never used it myself but I'd say it probably wouldn't work in my case). I've seen the iPhone ad in question and it never crossed my mind that they were trying to say it could do all those things in 29 seconds, I just assumed they were trying demonstrate all the iPhone's capabilities in a short advertising slot. As I said, I don't think Apple is the end-all be-all of technology, but I'm not a part of the "hate apple" scene either. People not capable of understanding the difference between a commercial and reality, deserve what they get.
I learned a long time ago that on cereal boxes, the 'milk' pictured was really thick glue, amongst other things. Mmmmmm!
You want to know how to help your kids? LEAVE THEM THE F*&K ALONE. --George Carlin
Some of Apple's ads clearly give the impression of being a realistic representation of how the gadget is actually working.
As for the specific ads you are mentioning I think everybody understands they are exaggerated and meant in an ironic way.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Several years back I watched part of a pizza commercial being filmed. The whole point was for this guy to bite the tip off a slice and basically look like it gave him an orgasm.
Apparently the rules are that they have to use an actual pizza from an actual box. So they had several hundred pies in boxes and a couple of people were busy ripping them open, looking for ones with the most and best looking slices of pepperoni or whatever. The handful that met the standard were rearranged so all the toppings were on one slice and cooked. Once they came out of the oven they'd cut a slice and bring it over to the actor, who was stripped to the waist except for a fake shirt front. (Those lights are HOT.)
When they were ready they'd mop off any sweat, touch up his makeup, and hand him a slice and say, "Take 15" or whatever. He bit and chewed and looked like it was the greatest thing ever. Then the director would yell, "Cut!' The instant that happened the guy would spit the bite into a bucket right next to him.
I asked one of the people there if this was typical. I mean, hundreds of pizzas and 15 takes just for 5 seconds. They responded that this was the norm except for shots where someone drinks something. You can't just spit that out and forcing them to vomit it up is too dangerous.
I haven't paid much attention to ad content since.
Yeah, I'd much rather eat the one that was made of plastic and sprayed with Windex! :P
Whatever it was, it wasn't "copy and paste." The iPhone can't do that.
Kid-proof tablet..
Went to Wendy's the other day and got a #2 combo because it looked pretty awesome on the order board. Got back to the office and opened it up to discover something pretty gross looking, a mash of squashed bun and grey meat.
When I experience something like that, I always think of D-FENS. For those who have not seen the movie yet, I highly recommend it.
:: There is no light at the end of a tunnel. There is a tunnel after a tunnel : Thom Y.
Of course if you don't like your phone's performance, take it back for a full refund.
The same thing won't work at most Wendy's.
I thought the job of today's advertising is to warn smart people about what not to buy because it needs serious marketing dollars to move it off the shelves.
thegodmovie.com - watch it
Please stop selling iphones. The bitching has gotten too ponderous. I deeply appreciate it.
Yes, but the ad is constantly talking about how fast the damn thing is. And so while it may actually be 3 times faster than the original iPhone, it's still much slower than it appears.
dom
Hmmmm - most of the ad was in real-time - there were only two cuts as far as I could see - but where it *did* cut was where the map was loading (after the user hits the map button, the camera "zoom-cuts in"). The exaggeration in the rest of the real-time part of the ad was in the *choice* of gestures - the pdf was probably a very light one, as was the web page shown.
This is not so misleading if the iPhone screen content was real (it was really filmed live), but on the other hand, if only the gestures were filmed and the screen content "added" later, that would be an entirely other story.
No, no sig. Really.
ThePromenader
Is that what is required now? It's a compilation of the features, you know the things you can do and not in real time. I know this, when I am looking at any advert. Now if they did this test and were showing the iphone against say the blackberry storm and they abridged apples tests to make them look better that is something completely different. Course maybe we have to look at making all adverts for a max IQ of 80, then we can't hardly be accused of taking advantage.
Nooo!! Mod points used up! +1 Funny :)
Indeed.
Further, it's pretty obvious why the commercial is really laid out in the fashion it is: It shows off far more features and how they work together than would be possible otherwise.
I'm all for truth in advertising, but only if we're going to apply the same higher standards to everyone. To me this judgement seems both absurd and targeted.
Last, what alternative are we pushing for with judgements like this? More ads that don't even really feature the product or service being pimped? I know which one I'd prefer.
-Matt
Assuming said employee had access to toothpicks, Elmer's glue, food coloring, clear epoxy, road salt and black paint, I hope you meant. Food in commercials is constructed like skyscrapers.
Those are careless and dangerous choices of raw materials for which to construct skyscrapers.
Seriously, if that's how lax building regulations are, it's an accident waiting to happen.
"We live in a global world" - Harvey Pitt, former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman
The advertised burger is Photoshopped... and likely not even a burger at all.
Many food pictures are done by advertising firms who use a model made of non-perishable, non-food materials like putty and plastic and then airbrushed to hell to look like food from the perspective of a camera lens.
They then take a chillion photos with various angles and lighting over several hours for the perfect shot.
You think any food (burger, ice cream, etc) would look mouth watering & fresh, with the cheese melted perfectly, etc. after sitting on a table for several hours being photographed?
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
You're unlucky - D-FENS was right behind you!
@peetm
Do not expect anything you hear in an ad to be remotely true, apart fom "product XYZ exists".
Does this rule also apply to Duke Nukem Forever trailers?
I don't think the burger comparison is even worth pursuing; that was a $5 burger at a fast food outlet, and theoretically an employee who took the time to make a good one could have given you a burger that looked like the advertised one.
As a member of the exclusive club of former fast-food employees, I can tell you that it's not only theoretically possible, but occasionally required! Fast food places are regularly audited by their parent company - if you're working the kitchen when corporate comes to audit, you'll be expected to assemble a burger that looks exactly like the advertisement, down to the placement of the pickles and those neat overlapping onions, in under 15 seconds. If you screw it up, the auditor will ream you, and show you how to do it right.
In Apple's case, no corporate auditor could have recreated that advertisement.
Legalize recreational marijuana. Seriously.
You are right! I know that in real world web surfing, I always make sure to preload various websites before I actually go to them.
Actually, you ironically hit partly on the truth. In real world use I use most sites repeatedly, meaning when I launch Safari much of the content is cached. Do you always clear out your browser cache entirely before you browse to each site? Zing!
But aside from that, you totally missed the point of my comment. Pc Pro was, in theory, trying to replicate the actions taken in the commercial to determine if it was realistic. Since they navigated to a web page instead of using a pre-loaded version, they failed almost completely right off the bat - pretty much just like your own post. I didn't even get a chance to read beyond that one sentence before you marked yourself as yet another ignorant Apple Hater unable to think rationally when Apple is involved. How else are we to explain such an easy miss on your part in determining what are valid elements from the test?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Why try to prove a point if you don't even do anything similar to what the ad is showing?
If you record the time to actually do the same steps as the ad, without all the dicking around the total time of their video is:
~1:28
I'm surprised they didn't set the unlock code and have the moron type the code in wrong a few times just to add some more time to the video...
Surely
"Duh" = "OMG! You are so stupid and you don't even see it. [Looks around] Is everyone with me here?"
"Uh" = Something French people say when trying to speak English because they can't think quietly ? ...)
(Ooops, now I've done it
Oh, the possibilities ...
"The iPhone ... so simple any cunt can use it !!!"
Yes, it's true! Women in ads are deceitfully more attractive than the actual specimens. I know! The heartless bastards in the ad agencies actually use the ripe sexuality of their much younger and shapelier models as an inducement to buy cars, clothes, follicle replacement and Viagra! It must stop, and be controlled by a Board, because the idiotic people can't be expected to understand!
"I think the only reason why Apple might appear exceptional is because they were required to pull the ads."
That's not in the least exceptional with ASA, which considers one complaint about some aspect or other of a national advertising campaign that millions of other people have seen but not complained about to be sufficient reason for pulling it. In this case, they received (wait for it) 18 complaints, which is a veritable landslide compared with _the single person_ who claimed to have been offended by use of the word "bloody" in a lorry-side ad for The Sun, which was then forced to pull it on the grounds that ASA said it was a very bad word.
I'm not going to change your sheets again, Mr. Hastings.
The demo by PC Pro was also dishonest. There were many gaps where the doltish hand model -- surely not a pro -- was obviously delaying his reaction to make the iPhone seem worse. I'd say the average sentient being could do all those things in maybe a minute.
Why the quote marks around "grill"? Is it not really a grill?
Screw the counseling, I want one with the extended maintenance warranty!
Did you have sounds on? Here's a transcript...
So what's so great about 3G?
It's what helps you get the new, really fast.
Find your way. Really fast.
And download pretty much anything. Really fast.
The new iPhone 3G. The internet. You guessed it - really fast
Tell me again you honestly don't think the ad has focus on speed.
It's like if Mazda advertised its Mazda 2 with a top speed of 520 mph instead of the real 107 mph.
I think the major difference is the amount of work that goes into misleading the customer.
The delicious-looking burger on the menu was treated with some extra love and care, placed under good lighting conditions, etc.
The iPhone in the add features hardware not present in the actually commercially available version OR some hidden plug to an actual fiber connection OR it's really just displaying a preloaded video, with a hand pretending to be triggering the functionality we see OR something else that I can't figure out. What's absolutely certain is that you are, in fact, NOT looking at a user surfing the web over wi-fi on his iPhone, and the Apple-people involved in making the commercial were pretty damn aware.
The resturant-owner who shafted you with delicious pictures probably has some minor genuine hope that his employees will do a good job on the burger.
No, video game trailers are different from ads. Ads inform you about a product that has or shortly will hit the market - in any case it's market-ready. Trailers inform you of what the company is working on and are often released rather early during production. One important difference is that the company pays mass media to show their ads (as they already know they're going to make money with the product shortly) while trailers are often just released to certain sites and then mirrored throughout the internet.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
I've tested it on a bet.
Granted the location was only withing a few blocks, and the web page was slashdot AND I was on at 10 Mbit Wifi connection.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
That's not actually true, it did have weasel words ("Network performance will vary by location"), the ASA still ruled against it. (Bravo imho)
Two Wong's don't make a right.
There's a much better comparison video on YouTube.
Schlock Mercenary
Did you have the sound turned off? How do you consider the constantly repeated phrase "really fast" to be a side effect?
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
Erm, never mind then
Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite (TM)
Again, another AC chooses to grace us with some mild insults, a meaningless fictional account of medical school and still doesn't accept the fact that PCPro mag are morons.
Once more, for the record, I originally posted a video because I could not believe it would take nearly 3 minutes to do 'whatever' was done in the ad. I am the first to acknowledge that advertising is known for treading a fine line between truth and lie. And the first to disavow some reverence for the iPhone. The recreation was misleading. End of story.
As for the ASA, obsessing over the minute inaccuracies of a product presentation -- in the face of so many products that even more obviously stretch the truth -- makes one a pedant, Sherlock.
I get that the UK have a stick up their ass about Apple products. Somehow the only news reports involving ASA that get picked up by /. have to deal with Apple "stretching the truth". I remember the whole "Supercomputer" flap...
It is all more of the same pointless 'hand-wringing'.
Riddle me this, Batman... if something has a visible disclaimer, how can you say it is willfully misrepresenting the truth "in order to deceive?"
Do the ASA allow car ads where the cars are speeding around, even thought there is a disclaimer saying "professional driver on a closed course. Do not try this."?
As you said, Apple's stupid ad -- I don't know how I got myself into being the apple ad-campaign defender -- won't cause deaths, etc... is stupid. I was only make the point that PCPro Mag managed to be both stupider and more dishonest.
Again I ask, do the ASA question the motives of those who file complaints? Who competes with O2 in the UK? What handset manufacturers have seen the biggest hit to their sales since the iPhone was released?
We apologise for the fault in this post. Those responsible have been sacked. -- Signed RICHARD M. NIXON
Why the quote marks around "grill"? Is it not really a grill?
You decide...
Back when I worked there they were something like this...
http://www.griddleworld.com/hobart-cgseries.html
Who doesn't? Went to Wendy's the other day and got a #2 combo because it looked pretty awesome on the order board. Got back to the office and opened it up to discover something pretty gross looking, a mash of squashed bun and grey meat. Yum. This isn't a rare case, and is pretty much the norm of advertising.
Lol, reminds me of the first time I came to the US. I saw these Taco Bell ads on TV with their mucho cheesy, huge taco leaving you full for just $2.99! I went to the nearest Taco Bell only to encounter these measly looking tacos and horrible service. I believe I went fast food restaurant hopping that night from Taco Bell to Wendy's to Burger King to McDonald's.
Let's just say I learnt my lesson well.
Help a man when he is in trouble and he will remember you when he is in trouble again.
Does the 15 seconds include microwaving the orange "meat" patty?
The OP was about Wendy's hamburgers, so I find it important to note that not only does Wendy's not use microwaves or heat lamps, they use only fresh (not frozen) patties. That's why I go there if I really want a cheap burger.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
uhhh... why would a NEWS ARTICLE be cached?
Because you viewed the page earlier in the day, and went back to check out a link...
Your inability to see even this common user scenario has similarly demonstrated your distinctive mental taint.
And you have the same issue with cranial density being unable to see the FACT that recreating the commercial for purposes of verifying speed means doing the same things they were doing, including doing EXACTLY WHAT THE COMMERCIAL did. Which includes visiting a cached page, at the very least (even if it was not quite the same page).
I'd love to get an MRI of one of you Apple Haters sometime when you are at full froth and see just how it is at those times you cannot grasp simple concepts like verifying actions taken with a device using as similar a setup as possible. Even a child knows how to stack blocks the same way twice, yet you seem unable to process that information. Fascinating.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I thought iPhone 3G had a GPS built in. The location on the map didn't pinpoint the location, but just did show a circle on the screen. Thet's how a first gen iPhone behaves...
I could be wrong about the 3G though and there may be situations where it may not be able to pinpoint you exact location, which just made the location even slower than on the Apple ad....
Write boring code, not shiny code!
Yeah, but they didn't claim it was health food, or that it would give you super powers, or that Wendy's would get you one in 5 seconds.
To me this would be most equivalent to some ad showing a car going like 150MPH* that is really a 75MPH-top-speed econo car. Guess what, even with a disclaimer "actual top speed may vary" I think this would be deceptive.
*In a realistic-looking way.. if the car stretches or has speed streaks behind it or something it'd be easy to claim it's stylized.
No, the demo was presented by a bunch of lameasses who seemed to perpertually forget what they were doing. Were they looking for the Start menu?
I think the GM workers are doing the same type of thing, hoping people will buy Toyotas. It's working.
> As a member of the exclusive club of former fast-food employees
Wow, I never realized we were an *exclusive* club. Cool!
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
LOL
If we ever cooked for ourselves we'd notice that burger meat loses its red and does in fact turn greyish when cooked.
Having said that, the burger you make at home, while it might not be the precise shape of a fast-food burger* they look about the same overall.
The only burgers that actually look freakish are the ones in the ads. That doesn't have much to do with the guy cooking your burger at the local Wendy's. I mean it's not like we're talking about McDonalds or anything. YAK!
-Matt
* They're typically very thin by comparison because the patties aren't hand-formed, and thin cooks quicker....big deal...try 5-Guys if this is your hang up.
P.S. Excellent point about the commercials that companies run which just feature a bunch of Shiny Happy People and an announcer (if you're lucky) shouting at you about how great the world is. I must admit I kinda like the same commercials from the drug companies cuz they run the same kind of ad, but have the Death List of side effects ("Erm...your spleen may fall out") at the end over the top of the Shiny Happy People. That is comedy.
I hate wasting my time for my computer and other devices.
Please turn in your geek card at the clerk on exiting. Thank you.
I know tobacco is bad for you, so I smoke weed with crack.
Thanks for posting this. :-) I'm a Wendy's fan (in the scope of fast food joints) and have had their food at dozens of outlets in 10 different states and have never had a bad sandwich of any kind.
Then again, I'm "astute enough" not to expect reality to resemble what I find in advertising to any significant degree, so one's mileage on this may vary I guess. :-)
-Matt
No, that analogy would be:
It's like if Mazda advertised its Mazda 2 running all your errands in 30 seconds that would actually take you at least 45 minutes because they edited out all the shopping, standing in line, walking to/from your car, etc.
Then complaining about the "honesty" in that advertisement would be like saying you didn't understand that those cuts in the video could have contained additional footage.
-Matt
...in real world web surfing...
I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but advertising is not the real world.
-Matt
He didn't say "a grill" and didn't use it in that form. He said...
someone who really knew how to work 'grill'
...as in a jargonistic statement concerning the wellness with which the person attending the grill does their job. (At least that's how it reads....not how you implied. Can't speak to the OPs intentions I guess.)
-Matt
LOL --Matt
I don't understand how someone could be misled by this commercial any more than I can understand how someone would be expected to comprehend the paragraphs of fine print in drug and financing advertisements that's usually in a font size too small to even read.
The bottom line is that for all sorts of reasons, advertisements are not a reflection of reality, they never or oh-so-rarely have been, and there are tons of advertisements on TV/elsewhere that are full of crap and lies much worse than this Apple ad.
-Matt
I am! :D
"I hope you like Guinness, Sir. I find it a refreshing substitute for, er... food." Col. Jack O'Neil, SG-1
It's possible it doesn't pinpoint over WiFi, or maybe they have location services turned off? Not sure exactly.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
No, they claimed that it was an appetizing, fresh burger. What I got was not. It is absolutely false advertising.
To stay on the food theme, I just saw a Taco Bell commercial for some new food platter, and the commercial -- which is all about how "big" it is -- shows a hole in the floor where apparently this tray, filled with so much food, smashed right through to the floor below. Wow, so that means that that platter comes with what, 500lbs of food? They're talking about how big it is, and common knowledge says that it would have to be incredibly heavy to smash through the floor. Clearly I can expect to bring a tow truck to pick up my order.
This is stupid. The anti-Mac zealots (I am decidedly not a pro-Mac person, but nor am I anti. They're a company with products) are desperate to cast this as some sort of ad abomination, when really it is absolutely typical of the industry (and no, to those particularly dense [see the examples throughout the thread], that doesn't mean it's right. It just means it's the norm). Stop and actually pay attention to ads and you will be amazed.
Just a sec I'm going to spray a bit of Axe and have to prepare for the onslaught of sex crazed women.
iphone users are goddamned entitled douchebag faggots
This may or may not be, but blackberry users are self absorbed corporate whores. They have humps in
their neck and squinty eyes from constantly staring at the device and tap tap tapping god knows whoever that pretends to care about their truncated thoughts.
music lover since 1969
I am not saying the Apple version was realistic, but hey, the PCPro one is just as biaised in the other direction.
I have to agree with this. I know the apple ad is bogus, but the PCPro version makes it look like they had never played with an ipod before. I can navigate the screen faster than that, and I don't even own one.