Apple iPhone ad deemed misleading by UK regulators

An Apple television ad for the original iPhone misled customers, ruled the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), a regulatory body in the United Kingdom. BBC News reports that the ASA received two complaints concerning the statement that “all the parts of the Internet are on the iPhone.” The group said that because the iPhone lacks support for Flash and Java, the claim was misleading. Apple has argued that the claim referred to the availability of webpages, rather than their specific appearance; however, the ASA said the spot “gave a misleading impression of the internet capabilities of the iPhone” and must not be aired again in its current form. “Because the iPhone doesn’t support Flash or Java, you couldn’t really see the internet in its full glory,” said Olivia Campbell, a spokesperson for the ASA. “They made a very general claim that you can see the internet in its entirety, and actually that’s not quite true – so we’ve upheld.”