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The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received 14 complaints that the company's Mitchell and Webb ads were misleading. Complainants believed the company was falsely implying all PCs - not just those running Windows - were virus-prone. They also objected to the implication that Macs don't need security software and that Macs never crash.

However, the ASA cleared the company on all counts. It claimed that 'home computer users were unlikely to be aware of the other operating systems available for PCs and would understand the term "PC" in the ads to mean a PC that ran on Microsoft Windows.'

'We concluded that, because people who saw them would understand they referred to PCs that ran on Microsoft Windows and any operational

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difficulties that might be associated with them, the ads did not misleadingly imply all PCs, regardless of software or system, were vulnerable to crashing and viruses,' the adjudication states.

More controversially, however, it let Apple off the hook on the claim Macs were less likely to crash. In its defence, Apple claimed 'viruses were a common reason for crashing' - an argument that the ASA appears to have swallowed, without considering more likely suspects such as badly written applications, faulty memory, disk errors or over-heating.

'We understood that Macs that did not run Microsoft Windows contracted fewer viruses than PCs that ran Microsoft Windows and as a result they were less likely to crash or need restarting,' The ASA adjudication states. 'We considered that, because Macs that did not run Microsoft Windows were less likely to crash than PCs that ran Microsoft Windows, the ad was unlikely to mislead.'

When we challenged the ASA over the technical accuracy of the claim that viruses were the prime reason for computers crashing, it told us the decision would have been referred to IT experts. 'If there's a technical issue at hand, we field it out to people with expertise... and use their advice,' a spokesman claimed. He refused to divulge the identity of the experts in this case.