Mac Ads Ruled Innocent
06.13.07 - 10:59am
It would appear that Britain humor is slightly different from American humor after all, something wondered about before Apple first began its ads over in Britain, and confirmed when complaints were filed over the humorous PC vs Mac ads.
The complaints (14 in all!) were investigated by the ASA, the Advertising Standards Agency in Britian. The complaints insinuated that the adds were misleading and irresponsible when they said that Mac owners would not have to “worry about the viruses and spyware that PCs do.”
They also said that the ads indicated that PCs crashed more than Macs irregardless of what software or operating system they used and that this was wrong as while Windows may crash more often other software operating systems may not.
Apple defended itself insisting its claims were based on comparisons with PCs running a version of Microsoft Windows, not just any software or operating system. Apple also asserted that since 97% of homes run a Windows operating system and most viruses are written for Windows. This does therefore make the risk of contracting a virus on Macs “greatly reduced” and that Windows would more likely crash than Mac OS.
The ASA agreed with an ASA spokesperson saying, “Apple sent excerpts from news articles on the number of viruses identified for PCs, which stated that Macs did not face the same security risks as PCs. They also sent a letter from an IT security company that stated Windows systems faced many more security risks than Mac or Linux systems.”
In the end Apple has said they will no longer run the ads in Britian and the ASA has dismissed the complaints saying, “”The ads did not misleadingly imply all PCs, regardless of software or system, were vulnerable to crashing and viruses,” the ASA said in its adjudication.
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