Wii U ad pulled by UK's Advertising Standards Auithority
The UK's first Wii U TV spot has been banned from airing over concerns it misleads consumers as to the console's capabilities.
The ad, which you can watch below, contains the narration "Say someone wants to watch Tv when you're halfway through a game. Do both, and everyone's happy," while showing New Super Mario Bros. U transferring from TV to Game Pad display modes.
A complaint lodged with the Advertising Standards Authority, said the ad was misleading, because they had believed the option to switch to the Game Pad controller would be available in any games, not just the handful which support the feature.
Nintendo of Europe defended itself, saying it has "no control over how third-party software developers used the capabilities" of the Wii U, and that it did not believe "the average consumer viewing the ad would believe that the feature was available on all games".
Clearcast, a company which anlyses ads for potential issues before airing, said "there was nothing in the ad that implied all featured functions would be available on all games, as this would be entirely dependent on the games' publishers and not the console manufacturer".
Unfortunately for Nintendo, the ASA disagreed and yanked the ad.
Only one complaint was made about the ad, which is quite astonishing until you remember "it's bloody embarrassing" is not recognised as a problem by legal authorities.
Thanks, Cubed3.