An Apple billboard showing a toddler holding an iPhone has drawn criticism in Italy, prompting the country’s children’s rights watchdog to refer the ad to three regulators for review. Here are the details.
Apple’s ‘Relax, it’s iPhone’ campaign draws criticism in Italy
Italy’s Autorità Garante per l’Infanzia e l’Adolescenza (AGIA) has taken issue with an Apple billboard in Milan that shows a toddler holding an iPhone, accompanied by the tagline “Tutto ok, è iPhone.”
The ad is part of Apple’s long-running “Relax, it’s iPhone” campaign, which typically shows iPhones surviving potentially damaging situations.
The latest billboards for the campaign show iPhones being used in heavy rain, nudged off a table by a cat, and carried in a dog’s mouth.
One of the campaign’s new billboards shows a toddler holding an iPhone, which is likely meant to suggest that parents can be at ease if a toddler drops their device. Still, it has sparked controversy over what AGIA called the “normalization of electronic babysitting.”
In a press release, AGIA says the matter was brought to its attention by a Milanese citizen who said the image was “disturbing,” as it “[brought] together two worlds that should remain separate.”
In her complaint, she also asks:
AGIA, for its part, also called out the ad’s timing:
AGIA says it has referred the case to AGCOM, Italy’s communications regulator; AGCM, the Italian Competition Authority; and IAP, the country’s advertising self-regulatory institute, “for appropriate reviews and any potential action.”
Apple has yet to publicly comment on the issue.
What’s your take on this controversy? Let us know in the comments.
[H/T Tipster]
