Skype TV ad banned for being too good

Oh no, what will Skype do? The TV ad they ran several months ago has been banned by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA).

Apparently five people complained saying that the picture and sound quality shown on the ad wasn’t what most people could expect. Skype argued that for technical reasons they couldn’t use a webcam as they’d expect their users to, but went for a “simulated” experience. They said “the sound and picture quality achieved by the filming method used in the ad was equivalent to the best sound and picture quality that could be achieved by users at home”.

The ASA concluded that because the Skype ad showed the best possible performance instead of a typical quality it was misleading. I wouldn’t think Skype will worry too much though – the ad has run and they probably wouldn’t have reused it in the future anyway.

2 Responses on "Skype TV ad banned for being too good"

1. 1
   ebuyerfb says:

   August 19, 2009 at 5:32 pm

   Are these the same people that said it was OK for Apple to say “blah blah blah there’s an app for that, only on the iPhone.” when in fact the app advertised was on other devices?
2. 2
   Mark says:

   August 20, 2009 at 12:55 pm

   Some people are only happy when they are complaining though.

   Maybe those five should ask for their money back on all the skype to skype calls they make.