Currys has been criticised by the Advertising Standards Authority after suggesting customers buying a new 4K – of Ultra High Definition – TV would be able to watch their “favourite Christmas movies in greater detail”.
Three viewers complained the ad was misleading because there’s very little native 4K content in the UK and what was available was unlikely to include any popular Christmas films.
No UK broadcasters run a 4K channel and content in the format is only available from selected subscription services such as Netflix.
Responding to the ASA’s investigation, Currys’s parent company said the ad didn’t say Christmas films could be watched in 4K and insisted the TVs would allow Christmas movies to be watched “in greater detail” because they upscale non-4K content to a higher resolution.
The regulator said: “We acknowledged that the advertisers maintained that films broadcast in FHD or HD would automatically upscale those images to achieve a picture near to 4K quality and would show an increased resolution compared to a standard FHD or HD TV.
“However, we had not seen evidence showing how “near to” 4K quality that increase resolution was, or that any increase in quality was therefore comparable with, and similar to, genuine 4K quality.”
The ad has been banned for misleading consumers.