EA Tiger Woods advert banned

By markypants, GameSpot UKPosted Dec 17, 2008 8:20 am PT

The UK's Advertising Standards Authority received a complaint about a recent TV ad for EA's Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09, in which Tiger Woods is shown swinging a Wii controller as characters from game footage in the background mimic his actions, with footage in the background that did not appear,...

The UK's Advertising Standards Authority received a complaint about a recent TV ad for EA's Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09, in which Tiger Woods is shown swinging a Wii controller as characters from game footage in the background mimic his actions, with footage in the background that did not appear, according to the complainant, to be from the Wii. To top it off, the only console logo featured in the advert was for the Wii--although the end of the advert was punctuated with a note saying that the game was available "on all platforms."

EA admitted in its response to the complaint that it had indeed used 360 footage for the ad, despite the use of the Wii Remote and Wii logo. The publisher's response was that it was preferable to use 360 footage, which was closer to broadcast definition, than to "up the resolution" of Wii footage. The publisher then asserted that despite the Wii branding for the ad, the note at the end should have been sufficient to avoid any confusion.

ASA upheld the complaint, saying that it "considered that viewers would infer from the ad that Tiger Woods was playing the game on a Wii console and the graphics shown behind him were representative of the actual game he was playing." The agency concluded that "Because viewers would not be able to achieve the graphical quality shown in the ad on a Wii console, we concluded that the ad was misleading." As a result of the ruling, the ad will no longer be shown in its current form.

25 Comments

  • Mr_Versipellis

    Posted Jan 15, 2009 1:09 pm PT

    Booyeah! Take that, EA fools and Wiitards!
    Neh, we all love Wii really... Or do we?
    No.
    Not me.

  • necronaux

    Posted Jan 15, 2009 10:21 am PT

    I'm surprised MS didn't pick up on this first, and sue.

  • SoNin360

    Posted Jan 9, 2009 3:11 pm PT

    wow if ur gonna advertise systems on a game at least advertise them all if the game plays on each one. nice way to favor the wii darn EA

  • ultiron

    Posted Dec 20, 2008 4:45 am PT

    they do that on preactically all there games - im suprised only one person has noticed - check out any wii game advert

  • hannify

    Posted Dec 18, 2008 2:43 am PT

    whaaa -- sneeky feking EA

  • tidyspidey

    Posted Dec 18, 2008 2:27 am PT

    ha ha ha - BUSTED!

    It's about time they were stopped using footage that doesn't represent the game they're flogging. There was a lot of that with the early Call of Duty ads when the 360 came out.

  • pgmonkeeuk

    Posted Dec 18, 2008 2:16 am PT

    Being in the marketing sector myself, you would "dress up" a product as much as you could get away with. It happens a lot with the run-up to Christmas (eg Apple getting wrapped on the knuckles for their Ipod Touch ad), and EA knew exactly what they were doing - so it's probably a fair result.

    Not everyone would've been wise to the fact that the graphics are actually worse on the Wii than what was shown. Not everyone would know that "available on all platforms" actually means "this is what it looks like on the best platform".
    Not everyone thinks of checking things thoroughly - and most products, especially when it comes to TV advertising, are "sold as seen".

  • bobbetybob

    Posted Dec 18, 2008 2:03 am PT

    Silly really, it's not like anyone will see the advert and go, "wow it looks amazing I'm going to buy it!" They'll go "Wow that looks fun, swinging about like real golf, I'm gonna buy it!"

  • flyingteddy

    Posted Dec 18, 2008 1:19 am PT

    i agree with this, since it would certainly fool enough parents or younger children. ive seen a few ads on telly for xbox360 games but which are multi platform

  • Col-Neil

    Posted Dec 17, 2008 5:51 pm PT

    And this is something new in ad's with video games why ?

  • Kyran87

    Posted Dec 17, 2008 4:33 pm PT

    Lol don't these people Google games before they buy? When's the last time a real human being believed everything they saw in an advert? Adverts are for notifying - nothing more.

  • jrabbit99

    Posted Dec 17, 2008 4:30 pm PT

    Oh come on, who cares, why do they make these bogus lawsuits!

  • Megawizard1

    Posted Dec 17, 2008 3:41 pm PT

    "Yes, I'm sure many people buy GOLF games for the epic graphics. Talk about uptight."

    I'm in no way being serious but I just have to say this:
    "But I NEED to be able to count every single dimple on the ball!"

  • shinmew

    Posted Dec 17, 2008 3:36 pm PT

    So does that mean that Game Mags that display touched-up photos need to stop touching up the photos just because the picture doesn't really look JUST like that? Am I not the only one that finds this a bit ridiculous?

  • volcomstoner180

    Posted Dec 17, 2008 3:33 pm PT

    haha well i have a wii..but i have this game for the 360....and theres a reason for that

  • UltimateRAGEX

    Posted Dec 17, 2008 3:30 pm PT

    Seems reasonable to me.

  • Kratos_OMEGA

    Posted Dec 17, 2008 2:56 pm PT

    HAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAAHA

  • webdoom

    Posted Dec 17, 2008 2:55 pm PT

    the thing is, if they were smart enough to realize that it was footage from a 360 then they knew it wont look like that on the wii, so why make a complaint when it wouldnt affect them? and surely they didnt make the complaint for the little guy, because in the day and age who helps others??

  • majere613

    Posted Dec 17, 2008 2:48 pm PT

    You'd think companies would have worked this one out by now. In simple words: Don't Lie About Your Graphics. Someone (even if it's a rival company) WILL notice, and you'll end up with less legs to stand on than Long John Silver after a dose of the Ebola virus.

  • coruscant

    Posted Dec 17, 2008 12:37 pm PT

    I agree with this decision because I'd hate to see someone actually believing the Wii's graphics are actually good.

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