The British TV Advertising Standards Authority has for a second time forced Apple to stop showing an iPhone advert labelling it as misleading.
The advert which shows an iPhone 3G accessing information on the internet "really fast" received 17 complaints from the public who stated that the "ad was misleading, because they believed it exaggerated the speed of the iPhone 3G."
In a response Apple claims that the "opening line of the voice-over stated "So what's great about 3G?". They believed that the claim clearly positioned the content of the ad as a comparison of the new 3G iPhone with its 2G predecessor."
Adding that "the implication that the 3G iPhone allowed downloads and internet access that was 'really fast' by comparison to the previous generation was not misleading."
In addition to Apple's response Clearcast also defended the ad saying that "they received supporting evidence for the claim and were satisfied that the 3G iPhone could achieve speeds that, when compared to the rest of the market, were reasonably fast."
The ASA ruled that the ad "must not appear again in its current form" after deciding that the ads "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."