Asus SA in hot water over “misleading” advertising

One Mr. Steyn lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) against an Asus internet advertisement for a gaming laptop.

The ASA ruled in favour of the complainant, Steyn, that the Asus advertisement was misleading. Asus failed to respond to the complaint and the ASA issued an Ad Alert to its members regarding Asus and its claims.

According to the ASA ruling, the advertisement made repeated reference to the laptop’s 3D capabilities such as:

“Immersive 3D experience”
“Awesome 3D realism”
“Incredible 3D experiences”
“Supports NVIDIA 3D Vision 2 with Active Shutter and 3D LightBoost”
“…the G75VX makes experiencing games, movies and photos in 3D more spectacular than ever before”

“The complainant submitted that the advertising was “misleading as he bought the laptop and discovered that it does not have 3D capabilities. Attempts to have this addressed with the respondent have proved unsuccessful, yet the misleading advertising remains on the respondent’s website.”

My interpretation of this is that Mr. Steyn presumed the laptop had 3D output capabilities (i.e. could convey depth to the viewer) but he was apparently of the impression this was not the case upon receiving the product.

At the time of the ASA ruling (18 March 2014), attempts to have this addressed with Asus had proven unsuccessful; the ASA noted that the misleading advertising remained on the respondent’s website.

The advertisement (published at: www.asus.com/za/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/G75VX/ ) has since been removed.

The URL suggests that the laptop in question was the Asus ROG G75VX which can currently be viewed here.

Asus ROG G75VX gaming laptop

The reason I point this out is because looking at the specs of the ROG G75VX it shows it is clearly capable of 3D output. It includes a Full HD 3D-capable screen, and an Nvidia GPU (GTX 670MX with 3GB GDDR5 VRAM) that supports their 3D Vision 2 tech.

However, it is not indicated whether or not the laptop comes with the 3D Vision 2 wireless active-shutter glasses kit required to enjoy a full 3D experience.

With Asus failing to respond to the complaint and their advert being offline, it is not clear whether Mr. Steyn misinterpreted the advertised offer, or if Asus themselves were guilty of an unclear and misleading advert.

The Nvidia 3D Vision 2 kit include a pair of wireless active-shutter glasses and an infrared sensor.

ASA ruling

“All reasonable steps were taken by the ASA Directorate to elicit a response from the advertiser, but other than acknowledging receipt of the complaint, no response was received,” states the ASA.

“The ASA Directorate considered all the relevant documentation submitted by the complainant. In the absence of a response from the advertiser, the ASA had no alternative but to rule based on the information submitted by the complainant.”

The ASA ruled that the advertisement would “create an expectation that the laptop is able to project ‘games, movies and photos in 3D’.”

Because these claims were not substantiated, the ASA ruled that the Asus advert was misleading and in contravention of Clause 4.2.1 of Section II of the Code of Advertising Practice.

The ASA directorate ordered that the Asus advert be removed immediately and may not be used again in its current format.

Additionally, the ASA ruled that “In view of the fact that the respondent has failed to respond and an adverse ruling has been made, the ASA will issue an Ad Alert to its members with reference to the advertisement and 3D claims in question”.