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HTC ad banned for misrepresenting U11 capabilities
August 06, 2025
The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned an advert that shows Olympic athlete Tom Daley using theHTC U11at a swimming pool.
In the ad, Daley takes a series of selfies while jumping off a diving platform. According to theBBC, the advertising watchdog reasoned that an average person attempting something similar was “unlikely to be able to prevent their phone sinking below 1M” — the depth until which the device is water resistant (IP67 certification).
The HTCU11’suser guidelinesalso note that the device shouldn’t “be exposed to non-fresh water.”
TheBBCsays ASA judged the ad to have “exaggerated the phone’s capabilities in a misleading manner” and that it must be removed from all media channels. At the time of writing, the advert is still live on theHTC YouTube channel.
The story echoes news from 2015 when Sony had to change its stance on thewaterproof capabilities of the Xperia Z5. Sony boasted in advertising materials that its phone could be used underwater before later updating them to “better advocate sensible usage” of the device (i.e. to warn customers against using it underwater).
Meanwhile, the ASA also recently banned theOnePlus “Lake Blood” addue to its violent content.
Some may argue that the type of usage represented in the HTCvideo is so far outside of the norm that it isn’t likely to be misconstrued as a real use case — in other words, nobody is going to take diving selfies with the phone like Olympian Tom Daley. It was a bit of fun, and people take things too seriously these days, they might say.
Others may simply argue that, if a phone billed as water resistant isn’t fit for use in a pool, you shouldn’t advertise it in a pool.
Wherever you stand on the outcome of this particular case, it does highlight a broader issue how phones are marketed. In the recent past, we’ve seenbenchmark fixingandfake reviews accusations, while Apple is suspected of going as far as toslow down old phonesin attempts to get us to pick up the latest models.
If you’re thinking of buying a smartphone in the future, it’s probably best to do a bit of research before throwing down your cash.
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