Advertising isn’t always honest. Shocking I know. This is especially true for adverts showcasing the super amazing new smartphone camera. In today’s episode of “Don’t believe everything you see on the internet” is this advert from Huawei Egypt:
Looks pretty amazing right? Except for none of those photos are actually shot with the phone.
Reddit user AbdullahSab3 posted photos uploaded by Sarah Elshamy, the actress featured in the Advert. She posted a behind the scene image on her Instagram which she later deleted.
As you can see the shiny blue Nova 3i is nowhere to be seen. Instead, the photo was taken with a DSLR would probably set you back anywhere between €3000-€5000 for that setup.
Now, Huawei never explicitly mentioned that the photos were taken with the phone. There’s even a disclaimer in the teeny tiny text: “Product characteristics and actual specifications may vary (including but not limited to appearance, colour, size), as well as actual presentation contents (including but not limited to backgrounds, user interface, and controls).”
But it’s very heavily implied that they are. Imagine you went out and bought a meat pie from your local supermarket. If later discover that it’s actually human flesh, I think you’d be pretty upset. Sure the store never said that it’s not human flesh but it’s still a shitty thing to do regardless.
An iPhone advert can claim that they were “shot on an iPhone” despite having this setup.
Sure, its taken by a professional photographer, with perfect lighting, and about 3k worth of recording equipment. But at the very least, it is actually shot on an iPhone. You could theoretically get a photo to look like that.
What Huawei are doing is outright lying to the audience.
This isn’t even the first time…
My absolute favourite part of this story is that this isn’t even the first time Huawei pulled this move. In 2016, Huawei posted the below photo on Google+ with the caption:
“We managed to catch a beautiful sunrise with Deliciously Ella. The #HuaweiP9’s dual Leica cameras make taking photos in low light conditions like this a pleasure. Reinvent smartphone photography and share your sunrise pictures with us.”
The caption, while not explicitly stating it, implies that it was taken using the Huawei P9. For a phone, this would be a seriously impressive photo. But, Google+ keeps the Cameras metadata, which revealed that it was actually taken with a Canon 5d Mk III. Which costs around €3000 might I add. Huawei quickly deleted the photo, issuing a statement that they should have “been clearer with the captions for the image”.
What do you think? Should this type of advertising be allowed? Let us know in the comments below.
