Turns out it's not only us HD geeks that were
irked by Samsung's ad-speak pitching LED-backlit LCDs as 'LED TVs' -- and in the UK, at least, there's been some corrective action. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has found that the terminology doesn't comply with marketing regulations and is misleading because unless you've got a set like
Jerry Jones', the display isn't made of LEDs. Spot on, ASA! To be sure, Sammy's new sets do have plenty of redeeming qualities, but whatever marketing genius came up with the 'LED TV' phrase is going to have to go back to the drawing board. Now, if only we could get some of this reasoning applied to US marketing and/or rein in wacky contrast ratio figures, we'd really be onto something.
[Via
HDTV Almanac]
posted Sep 2nd 2009 10:23AM
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DavidDB @ Sep 2nd 2009 10:48AM
Way to go - It always wound me up
Now where are all those "LED" Monitors ?
glennc @ Sep 6th 2009 9:14AM
agreed. i find this hilarious for the dumbass marketing at samsung. i know people that have bought these thinking they were new tech. partly their fault i know.
dude.i.left.it @ Sep 2nd 2009 10:49AM
Maybe its just a typo...
Mark @ Sep 2nd 2009 11:43AM
A lot of Samsung LED TVs are edge lit, not back lit. They still look great, but I think I would prefer proper localised backlighting.
JeffDM @ Sep 2nd 2009 12:05PM
LED backlit/sidelit/whatever TVs do look pretty nice, but I'm not that convinced that it's the LEDs that improved the picture, the panel substrate seems to have improved. If it was just the LEDs, then the apparent contrast ratio shouldn't have improved.
DrXym @ Sep 2nd 2009 1:27PM
Well LEDs do allow the screen to be thinner and the power consumption to be considerably lower too. If there is no impact on image quality (and there doesn't appear to be vs cfls) then I don't see any issue with LEDs. It would be nice if the LEDs were behind the screen rather than (or in addition to) the sides for localised backlighting, but that will probably come in time.
April Whitehouse @ Sep 2nd 2009 3:45PM
BORING.... What a waste of everyone's time. Is this really a story? Samsung is calling their LCD TVs with LED backlighting "Samsung LED TVs"... WOW... SCANDAL!
If Samsung was calling their TVs "Samsung LED TVs" and it didn't have an LED backlight, then that would be a big deal. But this seems like they are just taking Samsung LCD TVs with LED backlighting technology and calling it Samsung LED TV. I just saw an LG TV ad on You Tube the other day that did the same thing. Who cares?
By the way - I have another breaking piece of news for you... The nerdy guy in the Apple commericals is really not a PC. He's a human pretending to be a PC. I think it's time to take Apple to court for false advertising too. haha....
Bryan Harrigan @ Sep 2nd 2009 10:58PM
@April Whitehouse
Actually Apple keep falling foul of the ASA, http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/nov/27/iphone-apple-advertising-ban. And to be fair, metaphors are acceptable, a man can pretend to be a PC but outright deceit is frowned upon.
April Whitehouse @ Sep 3rd 2009 1:32AM
Bryan -
Thanks for the link. That's pretty funny that I made that joke and they do get in trouble... haha...
But seriously, do you really think that Samsung is misleading anyone here? I honestly don't. This seems like such a joke to me. The main difference between Samsung's LED TVs and Samsung's LCD TVs is the LED lighting system - right? So what's the big deal if Samsung calls them LED TVs? This happens all the time. I'm pouring myself a glass of juice that’s labeled "Cranberry" right now. I'm looking at the ingredients and guess what.... There is more in here than Cranberries. Am I surprised? No. We accept that it's called Cranberry Juice because the Cranberry taste is the dominate taste. In Samsung's case, LED is the dominate element that makes their newer version of LCD TVs unique from other LCD TVs. So they called it LED TV. Big deal. If they called it LED LCD TVs, it would just confuse the general consumer even more.
Nicnac @ Sep 2nd 2009 6:53PM
Why finish there? I'm sure the lawyers who threatened Samsung would be thrilled for the ad to be 10,000 words of techno-babble.
Alfred Poor @ Sep 3rd 2009 12:07PM
Actually, it is not unreasonable to find fault with Samsung for "LED TV". DisplaySearch had a blog entry where they went to a Best Buy event and were told that the image was made by LEDs. The DisplaySearch writer expressed doubt about that, and the Best Buy person called over a Samsung representative; "As she opened her sales binder with talking points to show me “LED TV,” she mentioned that she had heard there were LCD TVs out there that were LED backlit as I described, but that was not the case with these Samsung models." (http://www.displaysearchblog.com/2009/05/has-samsung-given-up-on-lcd-tv/) She didn't think it had any LCD in it at all. To present an "LED TV" as not being an LCD TV is misleading at best, if not intentionally deceptive.
Zach @ Sep 2nd 2009 9:48PM
I think this article's author needs to get away from the computer for awhile. This is silly. He is "irked" by Samsung calling an LCD TV with LED lighting an "LED TV"? hahahaha... What a dork.
Listen - if someone really cares about this, it's easy to find out. But the truth is, people don't care if it's an LED, LCD, Plasma, whatever... They just want the best picture available and LED TV seems to be winning people over. My friend has one and he loves it. I'm a Plasma guy myself but that's just my personal preference. LED TV looks pretty awesome to me too (oh wait - I'm sorry - "LCD TV with LED backlighting tecnhology 1080p 120 Hz" - don't want to irk anyone).