Somini said:
-CraZed- said:
Somini said:
-CraZed- said:
bubblegamer said:
JoeTheBro said:
bubblegamer said:
JoeTheBro said:
Mummelmann said:
Did MS really make that first one? That kind of advertising would actually be illegal here. Great response though. |
Yes. Why'd it be illegal over there?
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Europe is the same. You are not allowed to reference competitors by name in commercials. You can say other consoles in this case, but no specifying.
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Thanks for the response. That's a strange rule.
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The main reason behind is so that companies don't trash talk each other. Otherwise the richer one wins by default.
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Why by default? Smaller companies can't make a case against a larger one? That seems counter intuitive to me and seemingly only actually serves the interest of the larger companies who are above reproach by their lesser competitors.
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Well bigger corporarions have much more money to spend on ads. Smaller one's may not be able to fight back as effectively. For example we had an electricity company taken over by a german one some time ago and one of their smaller competitors aired commercials about their clients paying a foreign company and that they should choose a local one instead.
That didn't get appreciated one bit and they were in court soon after. They had to rectify the commercial and pay a large fine in the end.
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See, that goes straight to my point. A smaller and native company was shut up by a larger richer more funded company in court. The policy you speak of allows bigger companies to force smaller ones to keep quiet for fear of being penalized with huge leagl burdens that only a larger company could afford.
Big companies know how that works and will most likely shut up smaller competitors before they even get to court. Seems it would be fairer to allow that type of advertising than not.
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It's not an example of bigger company shutting them down, they shut them down because they were mud slinging, not because they had more money. EU courts hate big corporations almost automatically. The way we see it, if you want to advertise compare your products to your former ones. Nothing more.
The only ones making comparisons between different products are constument programms which have no financial gains or backing from ANY company.
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WIthout knowing the particulars of the story you gave me I can only say that I would much rather have the so-called "mudslinging" than the tight lipped company's who cannot offer valuations and comparisons to their competition. I feel like people are smart enough to make value judgments on competing products and even if they aren't (let's face it there are some dense folks out there) making sure there is no competing messaging doesn't go very far in helping folks becoming educated on the differences of consumer products.
Those types of policies are what brought restrictions and rules to the EU like the bendy banana law and banning claims that that drinking water helps prevent dehydration.
Back OT though, this fan made ad is rather clever and makes the MS ad (which I also got an email for and was deleted because MS is only about 4 months late since I sold mine in October) look silly.
