Tag Archives: advertising standards authority

The UK’s first Wii U TV spot has been banned from airing over concerns it misleads consumers as to the console’s capabilities.

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The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled EA did not practice in false advertisement when promoting the fact players’ choices would influence the ending of Mass Effect 3. The firm found the endings in the game to be “thematically quite different,” and while it was aware players felt they didn’t influence the ending as much as was advertised, it was enough for the complaint to be dismissed. The ASA’s decision was based on the three choices at the end, and the effectiveness of said ending based on the EMS score of the player. After Mass Effect 3 was released, players lodged complaints with the ASA claiming EA has dabbled in false advertisement as many felts BioWare did not provide a more satisfying ending based on player choices during the entire trilogy. Thanks, Gamasutra.

A British Xbox 360 ad has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for not clarifying the fact that downloaded Live movies could only be kept for 14 days.

According to the ASA, the small print failed to mention that anyone who used the download service must own the Xbox 360 with hard drive, which runs £169.99, and that the movies expire after 14 days, or 24 hours after the film’s started.

“Because the ad focused on the Xbox 360 download function and new users could be influenced to purchase on the basis of being able to download and keep movies, we considered that the time limitation to play downloaded movies and the fact that they were being rented rather than bought were significant conditions that should have been clarified in the ad,” the body said in its judgment.

The ad was brought to the ASA’s attention when a consumer filed a complaint, which Microsoft claimed was unreasonable because they were “not viable to explain all the features of its Xbox movie download service in a short TV advert”.