Huawei gets caught using DSLR photos for P30 Pro campaign

[DPennington]

Facepalm: Huawei has been busted once again, this time for fabricating images supposedly shot by their upcoming P30 Pro smartphone. The images weren't actually taken by the device, but were instead stock photos taken by a DSLR camera. While the Chinese phone manufacturer has made headlines recently for its data practices, they have a long and colorful history of faking images and benchmarks for marketing purposes.

Another hiccup has been confirmed for the enemy-of-the-state and potential Chinese spy mobile phone maker, Huawei. The company recently published image samples along with their teaser of the upcoming P30 Pro smartphone with its periscope zoom lens. Some detective work at GSM Arena uncovered that the images Huawei claimed were taken by the P30 were actually stock photos taken with a DSLR camera.

The suspected fakes were published on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, with the campaign strongly suggesting that the photos were taken by the P30's camera. Huawei initially reacted to the discovery with a statement:

“We would like to reiterate that those are, in fact, only teaser posters, and are only intended to hint at the unique new features that will come with the Huawei P30 series,” the company said. “Huawei has acquired the licenses to the original images and the posters are artistic renditions of said features only. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank the media for their interest in our posters.”

Earlier today, however, the company acknowledged that there may have been a "misunderstanding" regarding the published images.

Huawei has a habit of faking things for marketing purposes. Back in 2015, they (poorly) photoshopped bezels out of the P8 and P8 Max to make the phone look sleeker than it actually was. Last year, they were busted shamelessly faking images, again from a DSLR camera, to promote the Nova 3. Earlier in 2018 they asked people to write fake Mate 10 Pro reviews for a chance to become beta testers. Oh, and let's not forget them inflating benchmark data to make the Honor Play seem more powerful than it actually is.

You won't be able to buy it in the US, but the Huawei P30 looks like a pretty impressive device on its own, even without the fabricated marketing campaigns.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/79175-huawei-gets-caught-using-dslr-photos-p30-pro.html

 

[Uncle Al]

If they willingly fabricate fake marketing materials, what is to prevent them from fake explanations claiming there is no connection between them and the Chinese Govt.? I think it just illustrates the commonly thought theme of dishonesty and unsuitability. To ever allow them to sell or function within the US would be a terrible mistake that could/would open us to unbelievable risk we can easily avoid by simply keeping them out; out at all costs.

 

[texasrattler]

I dont think they can sell in US anymore. Trump banned them I believe.

 

[mailpup]

I dont think they can sell in US anymore. Trump banned them I believe.

I think that only applies to the U.S. government and government contractors.

 

[texasrattler]

I think that only applies to the U.S. government and government contractors.

You sure, I don't see anyone selling them in stores, just like what they did with Kaspersky.

 

[mailpup]

You sure, I don't see anyone selling them in stores, just like what they did with Kaspersky.

I could be wrong but before I posted I took a quick look at Amazon and they seem to be selling Huawei phones.

 

[texasrattler]

I could be wrong but before I posted I took a quick look at Amazon and they seem to be selling Huawei phones.

Wasn't referring to the internet. All kinds of things can easily be sold on the internet.

 

[mrfunk]

I think that only applies to the U.S. government and government contractors.

You sure, I don't see anyone selling them in stores, just like what they did with Kaspersky.

Did you EVER see their products sold in brick and mortar stores? And now those same stores no longer sell them...? I don't think I've ever seen this brand appear on any US shelf ever.

 

[Evernessince]

I could be wrong but before I posted I took a quick look at Amazon and they seem to be selling Huawei phones.

Wasn't referring to the internet. All kinds of things can easily be sold on the internet.

Being on the internet has nothing to do with it's legality. If Amazon is selling it you can be your bottom dollar it's legal. No idea where you get the impression that online businesses can just sell illegal goods with zero consequences.

 

[Kibaruk]

Again? Really?? How many times do they need to keep shooting themselves on the leg around their "professional quality cameras"?

 

[Capaill]

As far as I remember, no Huawei devices can be sold in US retail stores. But can still be sold in online stores. I don't know the rationale behind blocking one but allowing the other.

 

[sac39507]

Fake marketing material is nothing new and is happening everyday. Geesh. Do you really think the last ad of ice-cream you saw was really ice-cream? The Big plump juicy burger in the billboard you drove by was really a picture of a real hamburger? Please. Wake up. There was even an episode on the food network or "how it's made" that showed this.

 

[Evernessince]

Fake marketing material is nothing new and is happening everyday. Geesh. Do you really think the last ad of ice-cream you saw was really ice-cream? The Big plump juicy burger in the billboard you drove by was really a picture of a real hamburger? Please. Wake up. There was even an episode on the food network or "how it's made" that showed this.

Well first there is a difference between harmless marketing and marketing that can leave the customer with a material difference. The marketing pictures of hamburgers and ice cream are purely aesthetic and are done for consistency reasons. For example, you can't expect ice cream to not melt while taking pictures of it. Otherwise you are not getting a materially different product then what is advertised. They sold you ice cream and you got ice cream. Does it matter that they used mashed potatoes in the pictures so that they could actually take pictures without it melting?

On the other hand Huawei's ads imply the hardware is better, in this case the Camera. They aren't simply making their product look good for an ad like Ice Cream companies do, they are misleading the customer on false material differences in camera quality. It'd be fine if they cherry picked the best photos the camera can take but they went above and beyond and showed pictures their camera alone could not take.

As you seem to imply, the existence of ads showing their products in a good light does not suddenly turn this into a black and white world. There are many shades in between you seemed to have gleamed over.

 

[Knot Schure]

Fake marketing material is nothing new and is happening everyday. Geesh. Do you really think the last ad of ice-cream you saw was really ice-cream? The Big plump juicy burger in the billboard you drove by was really a picture of a real hamburger? Please. Wake up. There was even an episode on the food network or "how it's made" that showed this.

Yeah but the billboard doesn't hand you a paper burger to eat, claiming that is food, Huawei posted images from a DLSR camera - claiming that IS what you would get.

Quite different.