The advertising regulatory body in the UK ruled that Apple can say that the iPhone X takes “studio-quality portraits.”
An ad for this smartphone promised “Radically new cameras with Portrait Lighting. Studio-quality portraits. Without the studio.” However, this brought two complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
Among its arguments to the ASA, Apple pointed out that “the 50 mm focal lens in the iPhone X was one of the most popular professional studio portrait lenses and the lighting options available on the phone mimicked what could be done in a studio.”
The company also pointed out that there’s no industry definition of the term “studio quality.”
ASA: the iPhone X is studio quality
In its decision, the self-regulatory organization for the UK’s advertising industry wrote “We considered consumers would understand the term ‘Studio-quality portraits’ to mean that the lighting effects on the phone allowed the user to imitate a portrait photograph taken in a studio.”
The ad was judged by the ASA to not be misleading. “We recognised that there were many effects, techniques and tools used in studio photography which played a vital role in capturing high standard images, many of which were not available to someone solely using the iPhone X. However, we recognised the emphasis was placed on the significance of the lighting effects on achieving the quality of image the ad demonstrated, and we understood that those images shown were a true reflection of the capabilities of the iPhone X’s camera.”
Below is one of several ads that say the iPhone X offers “studio-quality portraits without the studio.”
https://youtu.be/ejbppmWYqPc
Such disputes about the phasing of advertisements aren’t not uncommon. For example, T-Mobile was recently told it couldn’t call itself America’s ‘Best Unlimited Network’ by the US National Advertising Division.
