Regulator smacks EA after XBox 360 footage used in Wii ad

Following a complaint to Britain's Advertising Standards Authority, Electronic Arts confirmed that footage in an ad for the Wii version of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 was rendered on a more powerful console.

The regulator upheld the consumer's complaint, saying the pastiche gave a misleading impression of the game's graphical quality. Noting that Woods was depicted using a Wiimote throughout the ad, in sync with the footage and the Wii logo, the ASA said the clear implication was that he was playing the depicted game.

Most interesting among EA's excuses was its claim that the Wii's graphics are simply not good enough to put on television:

[EA] explained that Wii footage would not be of broadcast quality, and the originating agency had thought it preferable to use the Xbox footage, which was closer to broadcast definition, than to "up the resolution" of Wii footage to broadcast quality. ... Although we acknowledged that the message "AVAILABLE ON ALL FORMATS" appeared in the final scene, we 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 ad must not be broadcast again in its current form, according to the ruling.

This reminds me of the good old days of buying computer games, where fancy Amiga and Atari ST screenshots were printed on the packaging of crummy 8-bit editions. WHERE WERE YOU THEN, ASA, HMMM?

Electronic Arts Ltd t/a EA Games [ASA]