EA told off for using 360 footage in advert

By Ellie Gibson Published 17 December, 2008

To advertise the Wii version of Tiger Woods.

The Advertising Standards Authority has put Electronic Arts on the naughty step, branding a recent advert for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 as "misleading".

The ads showed Woods wanging a Wii remote around, but showed Xbox 360 gameplay footage at the same time. A member of the public with quite a lot of time on their hands complained that this was bad and wrong.

In its defence, EA told the ASA that footage of the Wii game "would not be of broadcast quality". It was pointed out that the ad did feature text stating the game was available for multiple formats in a bid to avoid confusion.

"They 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," said the ASA.

However the ASA, which lives for this kind of sh**, upheld the complaint.

"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," said the watchdog. "Because viewers would not be able to achieve the graphical quality shown in the ad on a Wii console, we concluded that the ad was misleading. Woof."

The ASA ruled that the advert cannot be broadcast again "in its current form". EA is unlikely to receive any tea before heading up the wooden hill to bed this evening.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (67) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • the_dudefather #1 3 years ago

    'footage of the Wii game "would not be of broadcast quality"'

    Glol

    remember the days of prerendered footage with THIS IS A NOT ACTUAL FOOTAGE plastered on the screen?

  • Cadence #2 3 years ago

    I remember buying Le Mans 24 Hrs for the Speccy when I was 10 - I was a total noob and didn't realise the screenshots on the back of the box were from the arcade version. I was totally gutted when I got home, put the tape in a 10 minutes later was staring at some yellow graphics.

  • kangarootoo #3 3 years ago

    "would not be of broadcast quality"?

    Christ, make of that what you will.


    There seems to be some suggestion in this article that the complaint was unfounded or an over-reaction. Surely its an open and shut case of an advert being misleading? Does EG editorial not think that sort of thing is important?

    I'm normally a fan of Ellie's writing, but "However the ASA, which lives for this kind of sh**, upheld the complaint." is the sort of thing a reader might write. Its not really what I would expect from a professional journo.

    Isn't it supposed to be some sort of matter of professional pride that news is reported without undue editorial bias? If this was just someone's blog it would probably be fine to write in that way, but this is an online magazine which (via the magic of cack handed and heavy weight advertising policy) we are essentially paying for.

    Sorry if you are hung over or something Ellie. I hope at least a bit of my point is taken in the right spirit.

  • dazrichards #4 3 years ago

    Don't understand EG getting a little shirty about this. The advert was deliberate; making the Wii game appear better than it is. Adding that 'disclaimer' at the end saying it is available on multiple formats doesn't make it clear at all.

    Pre-rendered footage should be banned from ads but I am dismayed at how many of my friends are pursuaded by these ads even when I point out that there is no gameplay footage in them

  • The_Inquisitor #5 3 years ago

    Would not be of broadcast quality? The X-Factor gets away with it on a weekly basis.

  • bad09 #6 3 years ago

    "I remember buying Le Mans 24 Hrs for the Speccy when I was 10 - I was a total noob and didn't realise the screenshots on the back of the box were from the arcade version. I was totally gutted when I got home, put the tape in a 10 minutes later was staring at some yellow graphics."

    Exactly, where were The Advertising Standards Authority back then! arcade/C64/Amstrad all used on the back of Speccy games to fool us. The Bastards!

    Mind you can't blame EA really, the Wii graphics are pretty bad ;)

  • Evolution #7 3 years ago

    "In its defence, EA told the ASA that footage of the Wii game 'would not be of broadcast quality.'"

    Ok that's a bit of a ridiculous statement. Woof.

  • TriggerHippie #8 3 years ago

    Well what were they supposed to do? They're trying to sell this to people.

  • Weezer #9 3 years ago

    @kangarootoo. I agree: I dislike the snidey tone of this item. The ASA might not be the most interesting department in the world, but without them, TV adverts would be utter lie-fests. Ellie trying too hard to be funny/contentious/edgy I think.

  • Garulon #10 3 years ago

    "Like the Bioshock advert.

    Totally misleading."

    Whuh? Bioshock looked absolutely fucking amazing. They used CGI?

  • Farzlepot #11 3 years ago

    Did the watchdog actually say 'woof'? Because that would be awesome if they did that.

  • drumbaby #12 3 years ago

    The Wii is not of quality.

  • YobRenoops #13 3 years ago

    I don't quite understand why EG are being a bit of an arse with this. Its clearly not right to advertise like this as it sets false expectations (you'll get loads of kids returning it saying it didn't look like the advert!)

    The question I've got is, in what way is the Wii version not broadcast quality. If I'm right all UK broadcasts are done at a maximum of 576i resolution so surely the fact that a Wii can out put exactly the same means it should hold up quite well. It's just the advertising firm being idiotic.

  • actionfitz #14 3 years ago

    Pwnt.

    I agree though, many Wii owners would not take the discliamer at the end 'Appearing on multiple formats' to mean:

    "Yes Tiger Woods is playing on a Wii and the graphics look ace...
    but when you buy the game yours will look like shit, because you arent a famous Golfer, and havent got an XBOX 360."

    pretty much a closed case imo.
    Do Sony use PS3 footage to advertise game appearing on the PSP?

  • brockenheimer #15 3 years ago

    Agreed that the tone of the article is unnecessarily sarcastic. Adverts should not mislead us!

  • keyboardmonkey #16 3 years ago

    + billion "Would not be of broadcast quality? The X-Factor gets away with it on a weekly basis."

    Can we also include Idols and Big Brother in this please.

  • DFawkes #17 3 years ago

    Not of broadcast quality. Indeed, in the PS2 says no-one ever, ever used in game footage because it wasn't of broadcast quality. Like GTA: San Andreas. Or [insert on of the many that uses ingame fottage from <a href="http://gameads.gamepressure.com/tv_games_commercial s.asp?S=24"> here</a href>].

    Or Red Steel, or Animal Crossing, or Warioware: Smoothmove, or Mario Kart, or Wii Fit, or Wii Music, or Super Mario Galaxy. They tried to show it, but due to being "not of broadcast quality" looks like that grainy porn footage at the beginning of American Pie.

  • kangarootoo #18 3 years ago

    "The ASA might not be the most interesting department in the world, but without them, TV adverts would be utter lie-fests"

    Very well put. Its the little things that this which simply fall under the same rule set that prevents companies lying outright about their products. Are we supposed to accept that adverts are allowed to lie just a little bit unchallenged?

    Methinks someone just has an issue with authority in all its forms.

  • michaelius #19 3 years ago

    I wonder what people who bought it and played later at home thought about this :D

  • Doctor_What #20 3 years ago

    All computer game footage is CGI ;)

  • penhalion #21 3 years ago

    @Cadence

    I made that mistake once and once only for the C64 game. Never trusted a back cover shot ever again.

  • Darren #22 3 years ago

    Haha... this is quite funny...

    ... but then I remembered that the graphics in the 360 version of Tiger Woods aren't that great anyway, certainly not for the current generation consoles.

  • andromeda #23 3 years ago

    screenshots from spectrum 48/128k version ^_^

  • Mugwum Verified Operations Director, Eurogamer Network #24 3 years ago

    "@kangarootoo. I agree: I dislike the snidey tone of this item. The ASA might not be the most interesting department in the world, but without them, TV adverts would be utter lie-fests. Ellie trying too hard to be funny/contentious/edgy I think."

    Hi everyone! Thanks for the comments. I think you're reading a bit much into the way Ellie's written it. She and I certainly don't regard the ASA as a bunch of time-wasters, and we certainly do think misleading adverts are a bad thing. The "lives for this kind of sh**" thing isn't a dig at the ASA. Sorry if it came over poorly.

  • FatsoJetson #25 3 years ago

    As someone who works in the marketing press, I have to say Mugwum that this was the funniest ASA-related story I have ever read - wish we could get away with adopting the same tone. No need to apologise to this reader. Thanks for the morning chuckle.

  • Oh-Bollox #26 3 years ago

    Er, surely the ASA does live for this kind of sh**? I mean, this is their job isn't it? I can see them sat behind their desks screaming "OH YEAH THAT'S RIGHT MOTHERF***ERS!!", firing off letters to EA with the rapidity of a light machine gun.

  • Byzanite #27 3 years ago

    Darren: Youre right, they are shocking lol

  • des #28 3 years ago

    lol

    Wii games look like shit,what else is new.

  • monkeylite #29 3 years ago

    For once I agree with the ASA.

  • kinky_mong #30 3 years ago

    All computer game footage is CGI ;)

    I was about to say this but in a much more sarcastic way, along the lines of "Yes because the actual games are 100% hand drawn images".

    Has anyone else noticed that advert for the new Crash and Spyro games which has "Xbox 360 footage shown" in tiny letters during the advert yet shows only the Wii boxes at the end of the advert? Cynical.

  • Weezer #31 3 years ago

    Mugwum: no probs. Thanks for the feedback (er, on the feedback).

  • Lukus #32 3 years ago

    So Wii games aren't even 720 x 576? Crikey.

  • GamesConnoisseur #33 3 years ago

    Applauds ASA as I m tired of misleading adverts that sell what is actually not so.... like Sony using PGR3 car models in their 'advert' for GT! Of course a sly reference to Sony but all publishers are guilty to some degree of egging up their products to be better than it actually is.

    Hell they are only trying to maximise their sales understandbly,just not at our expenses thank you, of buying something that we was misled to think was a different thing! Bad enough without using fake videos/photos.

  • TheMoonRat #34 3 years ago

    Have you also noticed the iphone ad has now changed; at the end it shows "sequence shorterned"; as doing all the things it shows in the add takes takes 3 times longer to do in reality

  • Weezer #35 3 years ago

    Oh, and - back on topic - it's a bit of a damning indictment of the Wii's graphical prowess (or lack thereof). Ironic that a thing that's essentially made to display images on a TV is avoided when someone wants to, er, display images on a TV.

  • kangarootoo #36 3 years ago

    @Mugwum

    Always great to see you guys reading our oft pointless comments, and responding to our thoughts about the site.

    Thanks for the confirmation, consider it put to bed :)

  • HermitArcader #37 3 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • Lemming81 #38 3 years ago

    "How about banning all game adverts that only use CGI to sell the game? "

    "Whuh? Bioshock looked absolutely fucking amazing. They used CGI? "

    Just a minor point, but CGI means Computer-Generated Image. ANYTHING from a game is CGI.

    You are talking about PRE-RENDERED footage.

    /pedant.

  • Dan234 #39 3 years ago

    EA will have to ask Nintendo how they manage this feat of taking a PAL signal from the Wii and using it to create an advert which is then mastered in PAL and sent to television companies who transmit it in PAL. Must be rocket science.

  • black2 #40 3 years ago

    I read the "lives for this kind of sh**" as a weak xXx riff (not that there's such a thing as a strong one). But yes, there's a time and a place. And a tone.

  • _Hayko #41 3 years ago

    @TheMoonRat: yeah I noticed that in the iPhone advert the first time I saw it.
    The advert tries to imply that the features are quick and simple to use with only a few steps, and then in the fineprint its says that steps were taken out in the demonstration. Not so quick and simple then is it!
    Edited by 1 at 17/12/08 @ 13:40

  • kestral #42 3 years ago

    Damage is done, most parents will already have bought this for their child, unable to return it because of the returns policy of the local gameshop (by the time the child discovers the mistake). :(
    Edited by 1 at 17/12/08 @ 13:56

  • Garulon #43 3 years ago

    "You are talking about PRE-RENDERED footage."

    I'm aware it used pre-rendered footage for the bathysphere approach to Rapture, but honestly? The CG in game linked so seamelssly to the actual generated-by-360 graphics I spend ten seconds after the plane crash waiting for the cutscene to end.

    "appears to be custom made pre-rendered and smoothed up piece compared to the game itself."

    Twas the 360 version I think.

  • BartonFink #44 3 years ago

    "Not of broadcast quality" - GLOL

    Christ this should be put on every single Nintendo advert - the majority of them do this shit all the time.

    Maybe they should start each ad with "Not representative of actual gameplay, this will actually look quite shit"

  • mainaman #45 3 years ago

    I think it should be mandatory to use non-playable real-time footage done with the game engine,cuts from the in-game cutscenes,and mix it with some in-game action,like the MGS4 ad.

    The consoles graphics already look good enough to rival PS2-era CGI,Wii excluded.Why bother with CGI when it wouldn't look much better and would be misleading?




  • Garulon #46 3 years ago

    "Why bother with CGI when it wouldn't look much better and would be misleading?"

    Advertising Wii and DS games mostly?

  • schnide #47 3 years ago

    Despite the apology, I agree the tone in this is pretty poor. It's like someone who's been working at their company too long and forgotten the standards.

    Which overall, might be part of the reason I've started reading EGN more.

  • Entity #48 3 years ago

    "EA try to con the public!"

    I'm Shocked!

  • Aradiel #49 3 years ago

    @BartonFink: Considering the quality of the games Nintendo try to advertise, perhaps a better disclaimer would be
    "Warning, this game will play like shit"

  • Collymilad #50 3 years ago

    "It was pointed out that the ad did feature text stating the game was available for multiple formats in a bid to avoid confusion."

    I love the way kids can't get away with saying their dog ate their homework, yet Corporations can get away with blatently acting dumb and taking the piss.

    If they had really wanted to avoid confusion and not just half heartedly cover their own arses, they would have had something like this in the ad "FOOTAGE FROM XBOX 360 VERSION"

    Wasn't so hard was it now?

  • cyber_nicco #51 3 years ago

    I have to agree with the comments by Kangarootoo and others - I think the tone of this article was totally uncalled for. Furthermore, that IS misleading advertising.

  • Darkbeat #52 3 years ago

    "A member of the public with quite a lot of time on their hands complained that this was bad and wrong."

    There should be a new, stronger word for killing... Like... bad-wrong or baddong. Yes! From this day forward I will stand for the opposite of baddong: gnoddab.

  • David_W #53 3 years ago

    This article comes off as just a little bit too pretentious for my liking.

  • ronuds #54 3 years ago

    For the 360 commercial, they showed the real life Tiger Woods...

  • BartonFink #55 3 years ago

    @Aradiel - definitely

  • Lawlost #56 3 years ago

    This is exactly the type of thing I want the ASA picking up on, so that other advertisers think twice before duping the public. The article should have been supporting the ASA not putting them down.

  • secombe #57 3 years ago

    it's a bit of a damning indictment of the Wii's graphical prowess (or lack thereof).

    Nintendo (and plenty of 3rd party devs) seem to manage ok with showing Wii footage in adverts, so I don't really see that there is an issue. Pretty sure I've even seen Wii adverts in the cinema before.

  • Garwoofoo #58 3 years ago

    What an unprofessional news article.

  • adinus #59 3 years ago

    Thankfully there is someone out there 'with quite a lot of time on their hands' - the less advertising bends the truth, the better.

    This is a very ill thought out, wanky-toned rant at the ASA and the person who complained. From the article is seems very much like Ellie's siding with EA for some reason. Fuck knows why when duping people into thinking a product does something it clearly doesn't is something they should be given a slap on the wrist for.

    At least EG staff do actually read comments on here, though, and have responded. Wonder if it'll make a blind bit of difference to Ellie, mind?
    Edited by 1 at 19/12/08 @ 01:59

  • 1Dgaf #60 3 years ago

    Yeah, the article is dissapointing. I think the chap who wrote in about this should be applauded - arguably the least informed customers will be the ones taken in by the advert.

  • JahB #61 3 years ago

    EA will have to ask Nintendo how they manage this feat of taking a PAL signal from the Wii and using it to create an advert which is then mastered in PAL and sent to television companies who transmit it in PAL. Must be rocket science.

    you're missing the point. this has nothing to do with the advertising company not being able to technically use wii footage, it just means the graphical quality of the wii version is not suited to advertise a game. and what a what a surprise that is


  • Corben_Dallas #62 3 years ago

    EA told the ASA that footage of the Wii game "would not be of broadcast quality"..... because Wii resolution is shite.

  • Gradius #63 3 years ago

    EA - "It's *not* in the game!!!"

  • ilmaestro #64 3 years ago

    "Mugwum wrote:
    Sorry if it came over poorly."

    This article comes over very poorly.
    Edited by 1 at 19/12/08 @ 01:42

  • YourMessageHere #65 3 years ago

    Everyone please shut up complaining about the tone. This was a highly amusing story about a fairly unamusing subject, and at no point did anyone make an opinionated comment in the text. Your inferences are yours alone; as someone mentioned, technically the ASA really does live for this shit. My impression on reading was that the author simply wanted to convey a sense of the general madness of the world through the tone of the piece; the subtext, if there is one, seems to be surprise at this being the thing that gets EA a slapped wrist when this is such a commonplace occurrence. EG is one of the last bastions of gaming press humour that is actually funny, let it flourish in peace. If you want sober, sensible 'here is the news' stories surely there's plenty of better sites, for example EG's own gamesindustry.biz sibling. I come here for amusement.

  • Nookyalar #66 3 years ago

    Although a complainer myself, I have never been arsed to actually write in about one of these, but EA should have nowhere to hide. As stated scatalogically in the article, the ASA is just doing its job.

  • blender #67 3 years ago

    This article makes me so sad. eurogamer where has your passion for gaming gone. :(