QMobile Misleads its Customers by Using Fabricated Footage in its AD

Have you seen the new ad for QMobile’s X30 smartphone? If you have you might also have been either impressed or baffled by a particular segment in the TVC.

At one point, Fahad Mustafa plays a racing game on the smartphone which is then zoomed in to show graphics which are, quite frankly, stunning.

For reference, you can watch TVC just here:

Upon investigation, PAKGN found out that the footage used in the TVC is not from a mobile game which can run on QMobile X30 but it’s actually from the uber popular Need for Speed Rivals, that is not even launched on Android Play Store.

QMobile simply took footage from a PC or console and pasted it into the ad.

QMobile

Screenshot of QMobile TVC

Screenshot of NFS Rivals on PC

Screenshot of NFS Rivals on PC

This is simply misleading the customers. Not everyone is tech savvy – as the recent NFC spy chip debacle showed – and they might end up buying the phone because of the awesome racing game they saw.

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The worst thing is that the phone just might run games like Asphalt, which are great in their own right. But by misrepresenting in such a blatant manner, QMobile have attracted needless negative attention which just dilutes the brand.

Our suggestion to QMobile is that the next time you are designing a TVC, just stay truthful and let your product do the talking. With their market share, they don’t need to resort to such business practices.

Thanks to PAKGN for pointing it out


  • Seriously? Now we are trying to find out how true an ad is? How about we start from the SOAP commercials which have germs watching glasses or shit like that? Or what about Surf Exel? Get a new shirt after you put grease on it.

    I think this ad is perfect! There is seriously nothing wrong with it. QMobile is a local mobile company, not an ad agency. They hire an ad agency and tell them what they want in an ad. That local agency then shoots and creates that TVC.

    If you really wanted to point this out, a well-researched article would have pointed out the wrong-doing of that Ad Agency instead of QMobile.

    Death of real journalism as we know it :(. I think ProPK is far better than such baseless blames. Claims are fine, but you are choosing to blame the wrong entity.

    • Ahmad Awais bahi, we don’t deal with FMCGs or we had pin pointed soap ads as you have pointed out. We deal with limited topics and anything coming with-in our topic is covered here.

      About your point that we should have targeted agency instead of QMobile, we just can’t. We can point out the brand (client) and they are eventually responsible for the creatives in the public. Its a general norm. Yes, internally they can figure this out with their agency and try to get things corrected.

      I am sure you are aware, agency can’t run a single dot in any creative without client’s approval and this is why its a general standard to credit or discredit clients, not agencies.

  • I dont know why they do it but Qmobile’s adverts are almost always with some kind of fake thing in them.
    And also, they have the most laziest ad making team, even lazier than Porche’s car design team!

    • qmobile sells because its cheap, spend exorbitant amount of cash on advertisement and above all pay little or no tax!

  • Every Ad Misleads Its Customer….
    Lets Say Dew : Can You Do The Act Like The Performer In The Ad Do, After Drinking Dew….Of course Not…

  • You are right Ad Agencies have a major role, but the guys who are responsible for managing marketing should also be sharp.
    But “Germ-Watching glasses” is epic. Even Electron microscope would have hard time zooming the germs to an extent we can see them live breathing.

  • Ads are always misleading.
    What about someone producing electricity just by drinking a drink to run a boat that normally runs on petrol/diesel? (Sting)

  • I agree! I saw an ad for 3D once where the guy would go inside the screen and talks to the characters in it, an ad is an ad, its sole purpose is to market and let the buyers know what else is in the market.

    • It’s Q Mobile’s responsibility to check whether the right features are being shown or not, if instead of 4″ cellphone a 5″ cell is shown Q mobile will remain silent or not? If along with Q mobile a Samsung cell is shown, Q will remain silent or not? Why the hell silence here then? It’s not Ad Agency but Q Mobile allowing them to miss represent their brand.

  • Sir jee sting walay bhi mislead ker rahay hain kay sting pee ker bijli banti hai.
    Kahin logon nay khud ko current laga li to masla ho jae ga.please us pay bhi article likh dain.

  • “That local agency then shoots and creates that TVC.” . right but they copy and recreate someone’s else data.

    • And they are the ones to blame! QMobile ain’t got anything to do with it. They might even have a single person who manages this type of thing and he cannot be held responsible. You can’t expect him to know everything.

      • Seriously?
        You believe Qmobile is so big an entity that communication problems will hold such a biased AD copy from reaching its owners? You should drink more water buddy.. . Calling up Indian *itches is there only mainstream job!
        I am a mobile gamer, extreme level! This Ad is misleading me into thinking it can do better than my Xperia Z1 or Galaxy S5 – which it clearly ever cannot!
        Wrong is wrong, so drink more water!

        • You need take a long breath and think/read what I wrote again. Since being an “EXTREME LEVEL” gamer (if that really means something in English) you are taking the point wrong.

          Pointing out the right person who committed this wrongful act would be what we can call research. Pointing fingers at QMobile for this is not really worth the trouble.

          Every ad uses fabricated footage big deal, I think by now you should realize that ads are meant to be misled if users themselves are not attracted to whatever product they are selling.

          • Illegal, unethical, out of misery, and yeah, true-to-core a point of discussion since its WRONG.. . So yeah as being a Muslim first and a Pakistani later on, I stick to my words kthanksbye :D
            No more replies to sleeping awam, I talk to people who are awake! JazakALLAH khair

  • More than 90% tv ads in Pakistan are misleading, some are more subtle while misleading and others are blatant.

  • I think ProPakistani kuxh changa kaam v kir lo like mobiles ke reviews ya at least un ke antutu benchmark he nikal lo

    ads mn se nuqta nikalna wala kaam bacho ka hota hy

    i am not a qmobile lover iss pe pehla ke mra pe employee ka label laga dain
    I just want you people to grow up.

  • I can swear that the one who has written this article has no idea what advertising is and how TVCs are produced. You cannot claim this ad wrong because they haven’t mentioned the name of the game anywhere and the graphics they have shown is just for the illustration purpose. For God’s sake, please put your efforts on positive and productive researches rather than wasting your time on identifying such irrelevant stuff. Have you ever compared the burger shown in KFC ad with the actual KFC burger? That is not even similar :)

    • Yes that’s the problem. Aisa kisi developed market main kar k daikhay QMobile zara, company na band karwa di logon nay tu kehna app :-)

  • ThuMobile, I instruct every single person I meet to not to buy this crap phone. Now how are we suppose to support our country by buying fake and cheap things which also lack in quality.So people buy Sony, Samsung, Motorola original even used but never try China / Pakistani Phone. Period.

  • Qmobile always do something stupid and against islam…
    and this is the trick used by many stupids

  • soem other commercial like sting/dew are misleading too but normal viewers have sense that a drink cant make them electric supplier etc…
    but this type of ADs are not only misleading but it is also hurting Qmobile
    and i guess due to full flash entry of Huawei and Lenovo, now Q Mobile is going for short term earning plans

  • Voice also did the same they had a phone (I don’t remember which) which they advertised as having a QHD display which means Quad HD. But in reality it had a qHD display which is quarter of hd or quarter hd, which is very bad. I was thinking voice should be sued for this misleading information. Other companies are also doing the same. And yeah! There is also a phone which is showing the home screen of ios 7. Yeah the iPhone on a 3000 phone. In the other scene it changes to android out of nowhere. Please take notice and I would love an article on the information I provided.


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