The UK advertising campaign asked Motorola to censure the DEXT Smartphone. The television advert ran by the company claimed the Smartphone was the first one with social skills. So the INQ Mobile, a phone manufacturer and a rival of Motorola made a complaint. They said that their handsets have the same features that were introduced even before the Motorola’s announcement.
Motorola said that their claim has no objectively measurable statement of fact. You can take the first as an objectively measurable one but the social skills concept is too vague to measure objectively. Various individual behaviors like personal skills, etiquette and the good manners that are needed for a social interaction comes under the Social skills. The social skills of the phones cannot be measured or determined. The fact is that inanimate objects like the phones cannot possess the social skills. So they think that the consumer will not be misled since the claim is unrealistic. The claim was not an intentional one and it should not be misunderstood as a claim that this was the first phone that integrates the social networking applications.
Motorola announced that even if it was understood in the complainant’s point of view, a unique offering was brought to the market by their phone. The social networking features and the functionality of DEXT is superior to that of the INQ phone. So therefore the claim was justified.
The UK’s ASA(Advertising Standards Authority) said that the ad showed the streaming of different social networking sites. The ASA also said that there are differences in the functionality of the INQ phone and the Motorola DEXT phone. Motorola’s ad claimed that it was the first phone with the social networking applications. But it was misleading. The ASA also ruled that the advertisement should not be shown in the current form.
