A couple months ago I posted “Sour Apple: How an Apple ad sets the wrong expectations” here on SvN.
I felt that the interface response time and network transfer rate was unrealistically fast. It looked like they had to cut out a bunch of frames to make things as fast as they were advertising. I felt that was deceitful without claiming that the sequence was simulated or shortened in some way.
Yesterday I noticed they are now adding some fine print to the bottom of some of their ads that says “Sequence shortened” (the red box above is mine for emphasis).
It’s good to see them adding the disclaimer to these ads. The fine print doesn’t distract from the ads in any way. I think it’s a win-win.
Yelp
on 20 Oct 08The people at Apple read SvN! Awesome! :)
Nick
on 20 Oct 08Nah, it’s win-lose. Win for Apple, lose for consumers who are duped into thinking their phone will be that fast. The practice of promising something in an ad and then fine-printing your way out of it is dishonest. It’s a legalized lie.
Make no mistake, whether the voice in the commercial actually says it or not, Apple’s iPhone 3G ads are promising speed that the phone doesn’t deliver.
Jake Walker
on 20 Oct 08I think there was a class action suit related to this too.
Addi
on 20 Oct 08I’d say it’s lose-win.
Win for the consumer who has a better chance of knowing that this is a gloss-over, but a lose for Apple who people expect more of than resorting to tired old tricks.
Silent T
on 21 Oct 08Nick, are you still trying to convince your mom to spend more on Axe?
John S.
on 21 Oct 08More annoying than that to me is the 3G/eBay commercial. Look how fast 3G is! On this really fancy mobile version of a web site! The site they should would be fast on edge. But at least no one can complain now that they aren’t showing actual speeds!
Apples ads are really aggravating right now. The Hodgeman ones are going down the tube (and turning into downright FUD) and the iPhone ones are still misleading. I love my iPhone, but I still want the one they show in the commercials!
John S.
on 21 Oct 08Sorry for all the exclamation points.
David M
on 21 Oct 08not entirely related to cutting out frames to speed up the transfer times, but one thing that bugged me a little about the ad featuring MLB At Bat is that the screen shows that the game is tied 1-1 in the 7th inning, and yet it shows the video highlight of Braun’s walk-off grand slam which took place in the 11th… Probably not something the majority of people will notice, but at least shows the extent to which they are edited.
Brian Pan
on 21 Oct 08@David M: Now they can’t even edit a baseball game in an iPhone commercial?!? Has everyone here gone mad? Maybe the ad would have been more realistic if the game had been shown in its entirety?
“Sequence shortened” is as dumb as “Professional driver on a closed course” and “Contents may be hot”. Guess what?Commercials are edited!
I can understand the point of the original post of “setting unrealistic expectations” and maybe the ads were a little overzealous, but seriously, how many times have we listened to Steve preach the end of the world as we know it and love every minute of it? No one watches ads that are understated and realistic.
mike
on 21 Oct 08more disclaimers i’d like to see: “Skin irritations on the models face have been removed digitally” “Photoshop enhanced breasts” “Acted!”
;)
Ciprian
on 21 Oct 08yeah.. win for Apple!
Justin
on 21 Oct 08@mike: lol, where does it all end?
“warning, this commercial may contain moderate levels of acting. veiwer discretion is advised”
Seth
on 21 Oct 08I’ve also noticed they have started showing the last few seconds of upload/download time. So rather than showing the entire download it shows a few seconds of it finishing and then them interacting with the app or feature.
Greg Macoy
on 21 Oct 08I second mike
JP
on 23 Oct 08Watching the World Series and viewed the commercial. The disclaimer is barely visible and only up for two or three seconds. This is definitely misleading. Disappointing.
Damon Cali
on 24 Oct 08That they added a disclaimer means this: “Our phone is super fast, but we just lied to you.”
That’s actually worse than leaving the disclaimer out. At least then I could assume that it was a “dramatization” (i.e. fiction in the name of marketing).
Of course, the right answer is to not try to deceive your customers in the first place…
I guess we get what we ask for.
This discussion is closed.