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Phone ad breached rules over Facebook logo
Sony Ericsson breached advertising rules during the launch of a mobile phone which exaggerated its ability to use Facebook, a watchdog has ruled.
The television ad showed a woman using the Satio phone to take photos and chat with her friends and showed the screen displaying icons for several popular applications, including social networking site Facebook.
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But a viewer complained after buying the phone and finding that it did not come with the Facebook application, which appeared to be incompatible with the handset.
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The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld the complaint, ruling that Sony Ericsson's use of the Facebook logo was likely to mislead viewers.
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Sony Ericsson said an early software problem had meant the phone could not run Facebook when it was launched.
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Clearcast, which approves ads before they are broadcast, said Sony Ericsson had assured them that the Facebook application was pre-loaded onto the handset. Clearcast would not have cleared the campaign had it been aware of the software problem, it added.
The ASA said: "Because the ad implied the application was either pre-loaded on the phone or would be available to download, and because this was not the case at the time the ad was broadcast, we concluded the ad was misleading."
Defending the ad, Sony Ericsson said the software problem had been resolved and the Facebook application could now be downloaded from its application website and used on the Satio.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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