ASA Slams Apple on Mac Ad Claims

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), an independent, self-regulatory body for nonbroadcast advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing in the UK, investigated complaints filed by private individuals that disputed three specific claims Apple had made about its first-generation Power Mac G5 desktops in a recent advertising campaign.

In the disputed campaign, Apple called the G5 Power Mac the "world's fastest personal computer;" the first 64-bit personal computer; and the first PC to have broken the 4-GB, random-access memory (RAM) barrier.

On Thursday, the ASA announced its ruling against the G5's purported speediness. However, the organization did rule in Apple's favor on the latter two claims.

Regulating Advertisements

ASA press officer Donna Mitchell said all advertisers are expected to prove the veracity of whatever claims they make in their advertising.

These companies "should have documentary proof, which they should hold before sending an ad for publication," she told MacNewsWorld.

According to Mitchell, the ASA accepts written complaints from both individuals and companies. Private individuals' identities remain anonymous; however, if a company files a misleading advertising complaint, its identity is revealed to the company accused of wrongdoing.

"Anyone can make a complaint to the ASA in writing, which will be considered. If there is a case to answer, we will ask the advertisers to provide us with their substantiation and will assess whether or not they have justified their use of the claim[s] in question," Mitchell said, adding that the ASA makes the final decision on the complaint in question.

Why Companies Boast

Kathy Cripps, president of the U.S.-based Council of Public Relations Firms, told MacNewsWorld that Apple's predicament is not an uncommon one. According to her, competition often drives companies to make bold claims they cannot always support .

"It's analogous to a pharmaceutical company releasing a new drug for a disease where they are not the first to market," Cripps said. "They need something to differentiate themselves."

However, Cripps believes Apple is one of those companies with a goodwill bank, which it should use.

"They have credibility. They have a positive reputation, [and] consumers may give them the benefit of the doubt in this situation," she said.

Performance Tests and Results

Tim Witham, CTO at the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), warned that any unaudited benchmark or performance test has the potential to fall into limbo.

"I used to run a benchmark group, and I always told my clients, I don't want to catch you using any ideas out of How to Lie with Statistics," Witham told MacNewsWorld, citing Darrell Huff's and Irving Geis' classic 1954 book on the manipulation of statistics and data.

For his part, Witham believes people who are not mathematically trained can easily fall into errors in the analysis and use of results.

"Tests should be public. Results should be audited," he said, adding that testing should remain scientific and be subject to peer review.

"The difference between science and alchemy? Science is repeatable," he said.

Test Methods

In a typical test lab, staff would assemble all products to be tested in that lab and construct a test environment. The staff would then develop a test methodology that outlines what procedures will be run to generate results for analysis and interpretation.

Once complete, tests would be carried out either by running the compared systems simultaneously or in sequence. After tabulating and analyzing the results based on the test methodology, the staff would create a report for others to review.

It is unconfirmed whether Apple performed the tests touted in the disputed advertisements internally or through a third-party provider. However, Apple does post a Web site that provides an overview of recent corporate tests performed on the Power Mac G5. These tests centered on processor-intensive tasks for photo, video and music production.