Using Garmin, or your nose?

Alastair Otter

Alastair Otter is a senior journalist at MyBroadband, and focuses on software and hardware. He has a particular love for Open Source Software (OSS)...

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In a recent radio advertising campaign Garmin, a company well known for its navigation systems, claimed that "9 out of 10 people in Africa navigate with Garmin".

This claim got Joanne Macgregor hot under the collar.  Macgregor lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa, saying that the commercial was misleading since most people [in Africa] use their nose, ask for directions or maybe use maps to navigate.

"The commercial should rather have stated 9 out of 10 people in Africa who use satellite navigation devices, choose to use Garmin," said Macgregor.

Garmin was afforded the opportunity to respond, but at the time of ruling the company simply advised that "the ad has been pulled". It did not, however, provide an unequivocal undertaking to not use the commercial again.

The ASA felt that it could not ignore that the commercial was clearly promoting a navigating device, in this case the Garmin GPS product.  "It is understandable that people would use or associate the word with finding one’s way using this technology. It is unlikely that consumers will infer, as the complainant appears to, that 9 out of 10 people (including even those who walk) will use Garmin," the ASA said.

The ASA subsequently dismissed the complaint, saying that the use of the word "navigate" was not misleading in the context of the advertisement.

9/10 using Garmin to navigate?  – give your views