The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned an advert for Xbox 360's video download service, because it didn't clarifying the 14-day expiration of period of downloaded films.
Small print in the TV ad, which we're assuming is one of those lifestyle 'spinning head' ones, mentions that the service requires a £169.99 Xbox 360 with a hard drive, but fails to note that moves expire after 14 days and 24 hours once you've watched them.
After receiving a complaint from a distraught (and probably middle-aged) viewer, the ASA investigated the ad and found it to be in breach of its code of conduct. Microsoft argued (via Webuser) that it wasn't viable to explain all of the features of the download service in such a short TV advert.
"Because the ad focused on the Xbox 360 download function and new users could be influenced to purchase on the basis of being able to download and keep movies, we considered that the time limitation to play downloaded movies and the fact that they were being rented rather than bought were significant conditions that should have been clarified in the ad," ASA said in its judgement.
Sounds fair enough to us. You can't actually 'buy' movies on Xbox Live, only 'rent' them.
I see Microsofts point about it not be viable to list all the terms and conditions (a bit), but I still think it's fair enough that they've had it yanked. The term 'rent' should definitely be used.
Shut up crimbo. Leave your vendetta with Microsoft at the door. You're a fool if you think Microsoft is "evil". You don't know what evil is if this is the label you use.
Spelling does matter, at least if you are interested in increasing the chances of successful communication. It's one thing for one of the forum posters to let his/her butterfingers slip and slide all over the keyboard, but for a paid games journalist? I realise we are all human and thus make mistakes, but surely a simple spell check and one proof reading session through the article wouldn't hurt? Especially since a lack thereof has now resulted in embarrassing their professional image.
Incidentally, why do you seem to feel the need to be so hostile and antagonistic to so many posters around these parts? Do you feel it's part of your "unique charm"?
I see Microsofts point about it not be viable to list all the terms and conditions (a bit), but I still think it's fair enough that they've had it yanked. The term 'rent' should definitely be used.
yet more proof that shows how evil and cheap MS are but i am sure cvg and the rest of these forum goers will make the guy that complained out to be an evil lieing noob.
No he was worse than that he was a poster on these forums called crimbo.
typical MS, these are the same people who make millions of copies of windows, sell them to 100's of millions of people/business'/schools for 100's of pounds and then say...no can you test it for us?
Sure thing i'll just keep clicking "send f**king error report every 10mins shall i
(The Onion's tribute to Sony's technology and marketing.)
Best bits? Probably the references to the advertising campaign, and the line: "Sony says they plan to release an upgraded 800 Gigabyte version of this piece of s**t by the end of the year.".
Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs. I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs psas it on !!
Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs. I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs psas it on !!
Thats pretty damn clever. And a nice little ego boost all in one. So i'm guessing the moral is spelling is important, to an extent. Unless you are really clever.
This begs an interesting question. IS crimbo aka STD Grasshopper a Genius or a complete idiot. Guess its all down to whether he can read your interesting little titbit about word recognition. I'll give you 25/23 on the former.
One thing to mention though, which is that being able to read that appalling research sample doesn't actually make a person a bona fide genius. Furthermore, what it fails to mention is that it only works if the first and last letters of the word(s) are in the places they would normally be in when spelled in the accepted way. This can lead to the occassional hiccup when you have words with the same letters in the same amounts in words that are the same length but placed in a different order. Regardless, misspelling is rife on the internet, as well as in the live world, and it would seem the most likely reason is due to ignorance (which can be cured,) and/or the train of thought moving faster than a person's writing/typing skills.
Languages have a tendency to change over time and this in itself needn't be a problem as long as the people employing the language adapt with the changes that are introduced in to said language(s). Personally I'd prefer for a language not to change simply because some illiterate thugs standing on a street corner say "axe" instead of "ask" or because someone is too lazy to spell a word and instead insert numbers to represent the vowels, etc. Change for the mere sake of change isn't necessarily clever nor productive. Especially not if the change fails to bring anything substantially useful to the table.
I never understood why people would want to pay more than Ł2 from any site for a film they can only watch once, when you can buy films from retailers for Ł2-3 and keep them forever. Okay not new ones, but wait 6-12 months and then you can.
Also, I was in HMV in Heathrow yesterday and Iron man was reduced to Ł5 on DVD, but still cost Ł20 on Blu Ray!! No reduction at all, don’t they want to sell Blu ray films?
Surely they should reduce the price of both, if they are going to reduce the DVD!
Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs. I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs psas it on !!
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, UK BA1 2BW England and Wales company registration number 2008885
