PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
The Advertising Standards Association watchdog has rapped Motorola for airing a television avert that claimed the firm’s Atrix smartphone was "The world’s most powerful smartphone".
The ASA looked into the advertisement due to a deluge of complaints, two in total, which argued that the Samsung Galaxy S II has a faster processor and therefore Motorola’s ‘most powerful’ claim was a load of old bunk.
Motorola Mobility, soon to be acquired by internet giant Google, defended their advert by claiming that the phone could be plugged into a dock and then connect to the cloud and do other miraculous ‘most powerful’ things.
"When the phone was docked into the unique HD dock or the standalone LapdockTM, it powered a full desktop browser, whilst providing support for cloud-based computing and full virtual Windows desktop via Citrix account," Motorola said.
The ASA was having none of it.
"We considered viewers would understand the claim ‘The world’s most powerful smartphone’, along with a close-up of the phone, to mean the phone, in isolation, was the most powerful smartphone," they concluded.
The watchdog concluded that the advert breached BCAP rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 3.9 (Substantiation), 3.12 (Exaggeration) and 3.38 (Comparisons).
The ASA ordered Motorola not to show the advert again.
