Adverts
Oddly enough catching up on a few recently.
Zavvi seem to have spent some money on a block with all their wonderful offers, kind of amusing in a schadenfreude type of way.
From the makers of High School Musical a film about a bunch of teenagers singing about their lives, the makers of High School Musical 2 a film about a bunch of teenagers singing about their lives, and the makers of of High School Musical 3 a film about a bunch of teenagers singing about their lives,comes Rock Camp a film about a bunch of teenagers singing about their lives. Wow no-ones going to accuse them of being unoriginal are they.
Lots of adverts for CDs featuring singers I've never heard of who despite this all have 'much awaited albums' yeah sorry I can't hear you over the MP3 player and all the iTunes music I've downloaded. Wake up and smell the internet. The only advantage to buying CDs is not having to wade through DRM to get hold of the songs.
[wipes nose]
So many adverts for RED the driver instructor school whose cars I've never seen in this area, oh and some advert for having an MRI scan as a check-up whose advert impressed me so much I can't remember who it was. Though they do have seven clinics so one's never far away - yeah kind of betting that's one in Edinburgh, one in Cardiff, and five in London.
[Additional - 8/12: forgot about the iPhone one that demonstrates how easy it is to get onto the apps store download, install, play, then answer a phone call in the middle of it; then in text at the bottom of the screen 'Some steps have been omitted or shortened' - um sorry the whole point of the advert was to show how quick and easy it is to use and you've still had to omit or shorten steps?]
4 comments:
“It's so easy to use — just three button presses! Watch: A, B, C!” (Some of the button presses have been edited out.)
Um, WTF?
I'm quite surprised that such deceptive trickery is allowed. I mean, how can adding some tiny, barely readable text to the screen make up for the fact that most of the advert is a lie?
“New WizBang is clinically proven to keep you healthy.” (Actually it isn't, but this tiny caption tells you so, so that's OK then.)
“We guarantee we can save you money!” (Assuming you have favourable circumstances.)
“You'll love our music.” (Actual customer satisfaction may vary.)
Seriously — what the hell?
We do have strict rules on advertising and adverts have been removed or re-edited when found to be in breach of these. To an extent we should be thankful that when we're told "93% of [magazine] readers would recommend [product] to their friends" they have to put up "of 200 replies" rather then leave it open.
In the case of the iPhone they don't explicitly tell you that what they're demonstrating will get the same results it's an overview of how easy it is to use; and for those who are confused they provide the text. I just ponder over how many read the text?
It just seems like it's perfectly OK to say stuff like “this product will make you look 10 years younger, guaranteed” as long as it says in tiny unreadable text at the bottom “(actually that's a lie)”.
Which, obviously, is absurd…
Ah no it's weasel words, you get - "Visibly reduces the appearance of fine lines" then small small text "283 women stated they saw a visible reduction".
Amusingly there was a documentary on Channel 4 about all these claims and from what they said what can appear on adverts is different to what they can say on the packaging. So you'll hear these claims on TV, but won't see them on the product packaging itself.
I think the consensus is that there is some leeway here, they are after all adverts and by definition they're going to try and enhance the product. Provided they can back-up what they're claiming and aren't lying - no problem.
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