Xbox 360 advert banned by ASA

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned an advert for Microsoft's Xbox 360 for not clarifying that films available through a download service could only be kept for 14 days. Small print in the advert did mention that anyone that wanted to use the movie download service would require the version of the Xbox with a hard drive and that this model cost £169.99. However, it did not mention that downloads would expire after 14 days, and 24 hours after you began playing the film. Microsoft argued that it was not viable to explain all the features of its Xbox movie download service in a short TV advert. However, after receiving a complaint from a member of the public, the ASA investigated the ad and found it to be in breach of its code of conduct. "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," the ASA said in its judgement. www.asa.org.uk