The iPad Air.
The Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) has ruled against an advertisement claiming Apple iPads are used four times more than any other tablet in South Africa.
The commercial, aired on Radio 702 and created by iStore owners Core Group, was advertising an initiative allowing owners of other tablets to trade-in their devices for an iPad Mini.
The ASA has ordered the advertisement to be taken off air and not broadcast again in its current form.
A consumer who claimed the information contained in the advertisement was erroneous reported the commercial to the ASA.
According to the complaint against the Core Group, the iPad’s market share is only 45 per cent.
However Core Group responded by saying the advertisement was referring to usage and not market share, which, according to the company, currently stands at 81 per cent.
“Thus it is used four times more than all other tablets,” it said.
The ASA said there may be a difference between usage and market share but “it is unclear whether this would materially influence the hypothetical reasonable person’s overall takeout of the commercial”.
Furthermore, the ASA said the evidence provided by Core Group was tablet usage data from the United States and Canada and could not be used in an argument within a South African context.
