The United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Authority received complaints over Sony’s TV ad for GT5. The ad featured two men on a sofa about the play the game before cutting to screens from the game showing cars on the tracks and from different angles. Throughout this scene the on-screen text read “Actual gameplay footage”.
This triggered a number of complaints. One set of complainants said the “actual gameplay footage” was misleading because the images came from the replay mode rather than when the players were actually in control of the cars. The second set of complainants challenged the ad because it only featured ‘premium cars’ which were rendered in better detail than most of the cars in the game.
In Sony and their advertising agency’s defense, it was noted that Clearcast – a group which helps with TV ad compliance – had looked at the issue and decided that as players enjoyed the replay mode that it should be counted as part of the game.
The ASA ruled against Sony for the first set of complaints but not the second. The authority understood there were different types of car in the game but where satisfied players could access them easily enough for the ad not to be considered misleading.
However, the first set of complaints was upheld because such a large percentage of the ad featured replay footage. The ASA also noted that the ad aired in the run up to Christmas, when non-gamers might be watching, considering buying the game as a gift and would be unaware of the nuances of replay versus in-control play.
The ruling forbids Sony from running the ad in its current form again. Of course, Sony is unlikely to want to splash the cash on GT5 adverts anyway.
