On January 16, a UK television ad for Wii U, a new gaming console released last year in November, has been claimed to be misleading. The complaint described the television ad as misleading because all the features it displayed implied that they were universal for all games. For instance, one part of the ad claimed “Say someone wants to watch TV when you’re halfway through a game…do both, and everyone’s happy.” This is in fact, not entirely true. Third party developers decide if they want to implement certain features in their games for the Wii U. Nintendo of Europe Gmbh, UK branch explained that the commercial was just used to demonstrate all the possible functional capabilities of the Wii U and believed the average consumer viewing the ad would not believe that the features demonstrated in the ad are universal to all games.

When I first watched this video on YouTube, I really thought that the Wii U would include all those amazing features. However, I was wrong, yet I am a casual gamer myself. If I was mislead after watching the commercial, imagine what the average viewers might believe when watching that ad.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) considered the option to switch from gameplay on the TV to the gamepad controller was a feature new to the console, thus consumers would not be aware as to whether this feature was universal or game specific only. Thus, the ASA’s verdict is that the ad must not appear again in its current form.

One thing we can learn from this is that Nintendo should not assume that the average consumers know everything about the Wii U. Nintendo should’ve made sure the ad was clear to the consumers that not every single feature would be available in the games. Moral of this article? Don’t assume and don’t be ambiguous when advertising.